


IMPRACTICAL

by kaylenpastarr



Category: Impractical Jokers
Genre: F/M, Partner Betrayal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-31 14:26:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 47,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6473974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaylenpastarr/pseuds/kaylenpastarr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Q meets his best friends new girlfriend... It becomes a love less than practical</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So whenever I updated this story before it wouldn't alert people that I updated, so I decided to rewrite! Still the same story :)

"And you're sure they're going to like me?" I asked Sal, my boyfriend of three months. He was finally introducing me to his friends after I had heard so much about them daily.

"Babe, you're going to be fine. They're going to love you. They have to, you're my girlfriend now." He replied, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, smiling down at me, looking like the cat that had finally got the cream.

To say that I had given Sal a hard time about becoming his girlfriend in the first place was probably an understatement. I might have made him jump through a few hoops here and there. I had been in terrible relationships previously so I needed to make sure that I was ready to be in a relationship again, and Sal had been proven to be quite the sweetheart, someone definitely worthy of me opening my heart up to.

"You have to say that to make me go" I pouted my bottom lip out. I was completely nervous about meeting his friends, I've heard the stories and I've seen the show a couple of times. They definitely had their own type of banter and boisterousness about them and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with them and possibly be made fun of. I wasn't scared of them, I had just grown up with sisters, and hadn't really been exposed to that amount of jokerish testosterone flying around.

"You may never know" he laughed, kissing my pouted lip, grabbing my hand as he walked into the bar. Leading me to a booth filled with three other guys and a girl, he pulled me in next to him as all eyes focused on us both. "Guys, this is April, April, the guys.. And girl." He smiled, motioning his arm out to the foursome sat around the booth.

"Hey April" the bald guy greeted me excitedly, bringing me into a quick and friendly hug. "I'm Murray"

"Hey Murr, nice to meet you" I smiled, patting his shoulder gently.

"This is Q, Joe and his wife Bessy" he continued, pointing to them all individually when he called out their names.

"So she does exist then, I was starting to think that she was imaginary" the guy called Joe yelled out with a smile on his face, receiving a few chuckles from the rest of the table.

"Yes, yes, anymore jokes before we sit down?" Sal wiped his face, seemingly done, making me guess that this wasn't the first time his best friends had made light about this situation. I definitely paced myself slowly in this relationship, he had asked me a few times prior if I had wanted to meet his friends. And many excuses later, I had finally given in and decided to throw myself in deeper. Sal had been nothing but good to me, and it was about time to show some gratitude back for how he had been treating me, especially with the amount of patience he must of had in that time.

Joe and Sal turned towards Q, as if to wait for his string of comments about our relationship. Q reacting shocked when he realized that everyone was placing their glares onto him.

"What? She's everything that he made her out to be, I can't fault either of them for that." Q said emotionless, like he felt disappointed that he couldn't make a joke, which made me feel better because he was the one that I felt intimidated by the most.

"Okay, sit, sit!" Murr motioned for Sal and I to slide in before him, so I was now sat in between Sal and Q.

"We ordered you two some drinks, I don't know if you'll like this. It's some type of... Wine?" Q slid the glass over, clearly confused by it's contents.

"They guys wanted to order you a beer also, but I had to intervene." She rolled her eyes slightly. "I ordered you a glass of prosecco instead, I hope you don't mind" Bessy smiled warmly towards me.

"That's great, I love presecco" I smiled back, picking up the glass and taking a sip, the cold fizz chilling the insides of my mouth.

"You have to be easily pleased, you are going out with Sal" Joe called out, pleased by his comment, holding his arm up for a high five from Murray, who declined his hand and sat shaking his head. "What? That was gold!"

"It just wasn't that funny" Murray stated.

"Yeah, he's right. It was definitely more funny when we thought she was imaginary and when she wasn't sat at this table."

"Sorry to disappoint you all" I tried my best to play my own banter back.

"You didn't disappoint, I think you're lovely. You're the cutest little thing" Bessy's warmness continued.

"Thank you" I grinned. "And I love your jacket by the way" I said, pointing to her light purple sweater.

"What's mine is yours" she winked, taking a sip of her red wine. This didn't seem nearly as hard as I had imagined it to be in my head. I had almost felt silly that I hadn't agreed to come out sooner.

"Keep it up, a little girl on girl action is just what this table needs." Q said through a smirk, causing Joe to laugh, which caused him to get a near death stare from his wife for laughing at such a comment.

"Sorry honey." Joe looked down at the table, playing with the straw on in his glass, which lead a chuckle from Q beside me.

"So, April. Tell us more about you. What made you go for our Sally boy" Murray concentrated himself on me.

"Well I had met Sal at work, he - like the clutz that he is - spilt his drink all over the table, floor and somehow himself, and I was his helping hand."

"That's what I hear about you" Joe mumbled quickly, his wife smacking his arm with quite the hit.

"Joe, can you not?" Sal intervened on that comment.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. April, I'm sorry. Continue"

"It's fine" I laughed awkwardly. "Then I, Uh, yeah that's pretty much it. He asked for my number and it all went from there" I smiled towards Sal, who had now placed his hand on my thigh.

"Where do you work? I wanna see if I know the place" Q quizzed.  
"Gotham bar and grill" I answered his question.

"Oh I know that place, it's just down there" he said, pointing his arm up into the direction, which lead his shirt sleeve to lift a little higher on his bicep, flashing me some ink.

"Okay, I have got to ask because I keep getting a glimpse every so often and now I'm really curious. Do you have a tattoo of a cat on your arm?" Everybody instantly groaned, chuckled or either began to look sheepish. "What?" I asked, obviously missing out on something here.

"You're going to tell me that you've never questioned Sal's thigh tattoo?" Murray asked me, causing me to shake my head.

"I just thought it was someone he knew, or a family member." I replied, to which the whole entire table erupted into laughter and hits onto the table whilst Joe struggled to catch his breath.

"Holy shit I'm going to throw up" Q mentioned from beside me, before he started to cough an intense amount.

"Here you better let him out before he pukes on you" Sal stated, before he and Murray slid out of the booth, myself also as Q got out behind me and made his way to the bathroom.

Five minutes later he returned.

"I'm sorry but that was just too good" Q sighed as we returned to our previous seats. "You thought he was a relative or someone he knew, wow. And on his upper thigh, too?" He began giggling once more.

"What am I missing out on here?"

"You know Will and Jada smith...right?" Sal questioned, also getting in on this action.

"Yes.." I replied, still confused.

"That's his son" Sal replied.

"But why on your thigh?" I quizzed, Sal shrugging like he really didn't know the answer to the question.

"That one you should ask Joe. He made us get the tattoos" Sal said.

"Is there any particular reason?" I turned towards Joe.

"Just funny" Joe shrugged whilst smiling, causing Q to laugh once more.

"So what one did you get then? Let me see" I asked Q, before he held out his arm, pulling up the top of his sleeve slightly. "38, lives alone, has three cats" I read aloud, before looking up and around at the table. "That's unfortunate" I said in an on purpose sympathetic voice, causing laughter once more.

"I fucking love this girl" Joe announced, Sal squeezing my thigh gently as if to say 'I told you so' about them warming to me.

 

 

As the night drew to a close, Bessy and I exchanged our numbers out by the cars.

"Text me when you're free, let's go shopping or grab a coffee" she smiled, handing me back my phone.

"And text me if it goes back to one of your places" Q interrupted as he walked past, unlocking the door to his red jeep.

"Why would we want you there ruining the mood?" Bessy smugly retorted before Q stepped into his jeep and opened the window.

"Oh you'll both want me there" he winked before saying his goodbyes to the group and then reversing.

"He's such a jerk" Bessy smiled, Sal nodding in agreement.

"Well we better get moving" Sal announced, before walking over to his car.

"It was lovely meeting you April!" Bessy hugged me quick, before Joe said the same and we all parted ways to our vehicles.

Getting into Sal's car, he looked over to me and smiled before starting the engine, the short drive back to my apartment filled with talks of tonights antics and how it had been such a success.

Walking me to my door, Sal standing behind me as I unlocked my door, I turned around to see him smiling with his hands in his jacket pockets, the cold evidently getting to him.

"Are you coming in?" I asked.

"I've got to work first thing, so I'm gonna get home. But, I will see you tomorrow night?" He raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner.

"I think that sounds more than great" I replied, before he removed his hands from his pockets and stepped closer towards me, placing a cold hand to my cheek and kissing me gently.

"Drive home safe" I said after we had pulled away from the kiss, he nodded softly.

"Goodnight, April" he smiled, before turning around and walking back to his car. I waited until he had began to drive off before returning inside to the warmth of my house, smiling to myself. Tonight had been just wonderful.


	2. sexual healing?

It was around 5:30pm, and I had almost finished my shift at the bar for the day, when a familiar face came walking through the door. A familiar face that I had met the night before.

"There she is" Q smiled, as he walked up to the bar. I looked around to see if he had anyone accompanying him but he seemed to be alone.

"Hey, what would you like?" I returned the smile.

"I'll have a Jameson, and whatever you want."

"Thanks for the offer but I'm working 'til 6" I gritted my teeth, wanting nothing more than to have an alcoholic beverage on the job. "That'll be $6"

"No discount for a friend now?" He joked lightly.

"I'm sorry, you're going to have to pay the painful amount of $6, I'm afraid" I joked back.

As I slid his glass across the bar, he stopped counting his money when he had noticed the tattoo on my inner arm, just like I had done with him last night.

"I wouldn't have you down as an Elvis fan" he said, pointing at the small paragraugh of lyrics to 'The impossible dream" inked onto my arm.

"You have a fine eye" I replied, feeling happy that someone could appreciate what that tattoo actually was. Many times I had been asked what it had meant, or where it was from. I felt like everyone should know what Elvis songs were.

"Man, I love Elvis. Hard not to. What's your favorite song?" He asked, to which I lifted my arm pointing to my tattoo.

"I thought that question would be pretty obvious" I laughed back.

"Right, sorry, you got me there" he laughed also.

"So what brings you to a bar this early? I thought you guys were working all day"

"We just finished, and I had nothing else to do, so I thought I'd scope this place out, maybe get a few free drinks if you were in... yet I have been severely let down" he said smugly, before downing the rest of his drink, before sliding his glass towards me dancing his eyebrows suggestively.

"Okay, one  free drink. But that's it. I don't want my ass getting fired"

"You know what, April? I just knew that we would get along" he smirked as I slid his drink back over to him, before looking down at my watch.

"And do you know what? I might take up your offer on that drink" I said, noticing that my shift was almost over and it seemed to be a quiet hour.

"How about we do some shots?" Q suggested, which I debated in my head, before giving in instantly. There was no reason why I shouldn't.

"Fine, but you're paying since it was your idea" I said, before grabbing a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses.

"No lemon? What kind of bartender are you?"

"Seriously, no lemon? What kind of man are you?" I mocked him.

"Ohhhhhhhh she went there" Brian raised his voice a little, seeming like that one obnoxious drunk at the bar, yet all he had had was two drinks.

"Now come on sister, do your shots" I said, before downing my glass. My clenched face meeting Q's as he pulled the same reaction at the potent taste.

After 6 more shots, and a little buzz going, Q pulled his phone out of his pocket, before sliding closer to my side.

"Here, take a picture with me, let's load it to instagram" he announced, as he held up his camera in front of us both, raising our shot glasses to the screen.

Moments later, my phone started to ring. It was Sal.

"Hey boo" I smiled into the phone.

"Hey what's up? I see that Q found you" he said, obviously having seen the post that Q had uploaded.

"Yes, that he did. How come you didn't come?" I replied, trying to sound upset that his friend who I had met once decided to come and visit me at work as opposed to my own boyfriend.

"I'm sorry, baby. You know I don't like drinking so early. Besides, I was going to come over and see you tonight. That's if you're not too bombed."

"I'm fine. I'll get a cab"

"No need, I'm on my way to your bar now. Maybe we can grab something to eat on the way back"

"Sounds great" I smiled, before looking over at Q, hoping that he wouldn't be too mad about me ditching our little drinking play date to go and hang out with his best friend. I didn't want him to think that I was taking Sal away from him by any means.

"I'll see you in a bit"

"Yes you will" I replied, before hanging my phone up and putting it back onto the bar top. "So, Sal is on his way" I announced to Q.

"I haven't gotten that guy drunk in months"

"That's the thing.. I think he's just coming to pick me up. We already had plans, and I didn't know you were going to show up here and.."

"It's fine" he chuckled to himself. "You guys had plans, I should have checked before hand" he looked up at me.

"But you'll be okay? I can order you a cab if you'd like?" I asked.

"I'll probably hang around. Who knows, maybe this place won't be so dead soon if you know what I mean" he nudged me with his elbow.

"If you're looking for sloppy girls, you've definitely came to the right place. I can tell you endless stories involving them from working here"

"No one really shows up to a bar looking for a wife, so the sloppier the better" he said, holding his glass up as if to cheers to the information that I had just given him.

The sound of the door opening filled the room, before I turned to see Sal walking towards the bar stools that Q and I had perched ourselves on.

"Having fun are we?" Sal smiled as he sat on the stool next to mine before leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. "Are you ready to leave?" He asked.

"I'm ready." I smiled, before grabbing my purse off the counter and standing up.

"Thank you for stealing my wingman" Q said from his seat.

"She didn't steal.."

"I'm not talking about April, I'm talking about you. April has proven to be quite the drinking partner."

"This girls got a liver of steal" Sal replied, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay?" I asked Q once again, feeling extremely guilty for leaving him on his own.

"He's on the prowl, he should be just fine" Sal said, before patting his friend on the back. "See you tomorrow, buddy. Don't be too late"

"See you guys" Q chirped, before Sal lead me out of the bar, hand accompanying my own.

"Don't you ever feel bad?" I turned towards Sal as we were in the car park walking towards his car.

"About what?"

"Leaving him on his own?"

"You clearly don't know Quinn very well" he began laughing. "He'll be more than fine, I can assure you. As long as there is liquor and as long as there's girls, he's set for happiness" he said, opening my car door for me, before shutting it and getting in his own.

Of course he was right, I didn't know Q very well. But it definitely felt like this whole womanizing thing was more of an act than a genuine persona. I just found it a little bizarre how he had decided to come and hang out with me on his own, when he could have easily gone and hung out with Sal instead. My guess was that Q was a little lonely. He just filled the void with - as Sal mentioned - liquor and girls.

"So what are your plans for us?" I asked, wondering what he had planned since last night.

"I don't know about you, but it's been a really hectic day, and I really want a quiet night in. With take out of some sort. How's that sound?"

"Sounds amazing, I am starving" I said, the alcohol I had consumed making me crave all sorts of fatty foods.

"Well we'll pick up a Chinese on the way home, and watch some shitty movies" he smiled towards me before focusing his eyes back on the road.

 

Once we had arrived home and scoured through Netflix for the last twenty minutes, I felt a hand slowly run up my thigh.

"I'm now just picking up what you meant by a quiet night in" I giggled at myself for being so naive. Sal chuckled back before edging closer, planting kisses along the side of my neck.

"mmm you smell so good" he purred, trailing his line of kisses down and over my shoulder.

I couldn't take it anymore, I turned to face him, our lips meeting in a heated kiss, a few moans thrown into the mix here and there.

He began reaching for the hem of my shirt, pulling it up and over my head. Hands instantly going to my breasts, kneading them over the fabric of my bra, now trailing his kisses along my collar bone, then down in between my breasts. Reaching his hands around my back, he slowly managed to unclasp my bra. His hands now returning to the bare flesh of my chest.

"You're so hot" he moaned, attaching his mouth to my left nipple, sucking it gently, occasionally adding a swirl of the tongue. Moments later he was repeating the assault but on the other side.  
Running my finger tips through his hair, I leant my head back just reeling in the feeling.

After a few minutes, I had decided it was my turn to tease. I pushed him away from my body with his shoulders, before noticing that he was much, much more clothed than me. I grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head, before joining our lips together once more, our tongues battling the others for dominance.

I slowly slid my hand down his chest, still lowering my position, until my fingers trailed down to his jeans, feeling a slight hardness through the thick fabric.

"Someone really was ready for tonight, weren't they?" I said, running my hand over it, then slowly unzipping his fly before sliding my hand beneath his boxers, running my fingers along his length, feeling him harden even further by such a gentle touch.

"I'm always ready whenever you're around" he smirked.

"Oh I can tell" I said, as I pulled his pants and underwear down his legs, revealing everything that proved his sentence to be nothing but the truth.

Leaning onto my knees, I began learning forward, grabbing his length in my hand, pumping it slowly with my hand before placing my lips around it. The swirling of my tongue, and movement of my head had Sal groaning in no time.

Removing my lips, I attached them back to his, before pulling away only mere centimetres.

"Fuck me, Sal" I whispered, the desperate need for his touch more than evident.

He now pushed me onto my back, before looping his fingers in the waistband of my pants and underwear, pulling them both swiftly off.

I felt the bed dip where he had gotten off the bed, hearing him rummage through the drawer on the other side of the room, before retuning back to me, the rustling of a condom being opened soon followed.

After sliding it onto his length, the kisses to my neck returned. I could feel his tip run along my folds, before the slight pressure of him entering me occurred shortly after.

"Oh my god" I said through an inhale, as he began his slow movements as I adjusted to him being inside me.

"Shit, April" he moaned back, looking between us, watching the movements of our bodies connecting.

"Faster" I said, needing more than such a slow and torturous pace.

He sped up a little faster, but not as much as I had hoped for. To say that Sal was a little vanilla in the bedroom would not be a lie, but he had definitely came out of his shell more since the first time that we had hooked up.

Sal's face began to tense up, and I knew that it wouldn't be long before he crumbled over top of me. His thrusts began slowing down, and grip on my hips started tightening as his high rushed through him, a low growl escaping his lips as he rode out his orgasm.

"Fuck" he breathed heavily into my shoulder, before retracting himself from my body and lying next to me.

I don't know if it was because he had some very boring sex in his lifetime before, or if it was because of the fact that he had been single for so long, but i definitely shouldn't be left craving more after we had just had sex two minutes prior. I needed a plan, and I needed one soon before I went just about insane, I needed to spice up Sal and I's sex life. I just didn't know how hard that would be for a guy that was clearly set in his ways.


	3. we break fast, 'cause we are glass

It was the usual, same old night. Getting hit on by old men whilst trying to earn a pay check. It was something that I had gotten used to working here for so long, but to say it didn't creep me out would be a false statement.

As I wiped the bar top over with a cloth, I felt the presence of someone standing before me, awaiting to be served.

"Hold on one moment" I said, not looking up from the cleaning up that I was doing. Before a phone was slid along the bar gently, along with a hand. But just then I had noticed that it was in fact my phone. One that I hadn't seen since last night and had been searching frantically for.

"You left this on the bar last night" Q's voice appeared before me, as I looked up, meeting his chocolate eyes with my own. Picking up the phone to check if I had any texts quickly, I looked back up at Q once more.

"Oh my gosh, thank you. I have been looking for this thing everywhere!" I announced.

"It's no problem." He smiled.

"Jameson?" I asked.

"You bet" he smiled once more before I proceeded to get a glass and make him his order.

"So, I have to ask, did your powers of persuasion work wonders last night?"

"That they did" he pursed his lips, not seeming nearly as proud as I thought he would seem after a one night stand.

"Bad in bed?" I asked, not knowing another way to question his lack of enthusiasm.

"Something like that" he chuckled. "Have you seen Sal?"

"Nope, he's at some stand up thing" I replied.

"So there will be no interruption in my offer to get drunk with me tonight? Courtesy of me, of course"

I looked down at my watch, noticing that it was the exact same time that he had came into the bar yesterday, making me think that he had planned on catching me just before I finished my shift and made any further plans.

"Fine. Fine" I said, passing him his drink. "Does this mean I have to play wing man, though?"

"Not tonight. I want to get to know you more" he smiled, seeming sincere.

"Well if you wanna help collect glasses, I could get off sooner.." I suggested, noticing my colleague that would be taking over my shift enter the bar. He didn't kick up a fuss, instead he picked himself up from his stool relatively quickly, before making himself useful and clearing a table. I began picking up glasses on the table next to him, knowing that my hands were already full. There was one glass left on the table and I thought it'd be just pointless to leave it there. Leaning over the table, I lifted one finger hoping to hook the glass beneath it, instead the handful of glasses that I was holding in that moment decided to crash to the floor and smash instead - just my luck.

I bent down, picking up the biggest pieces of glass and placing them into the palm of my other hand, before I saw Q walking over to me.

"Woah, woah, watch out you're gonna cu.."

"Ouch, fuck" I said, as a shard of glass pierced my finger, blood now trickling down the digit.

"I was gonna say cut yourself, but it seems like you already managed that"

"No, you just jinxed me!" I said, as he took my hand in his trying to inspect the damage.

"I didn't do anything. Do you have a first aid box? This is going to need to be cleaned" he said, applying pressure with the napkin that he had got from the nearest table to try and stop the bleeding.

"Yeah, it's on the shelf under the bar" I said, pointing with a non damaged finger to whereabouts exactly. He began walking to where I had told him, and after a few moments of rustling around I saw him appear with the first aid kit in hand.

"Still bleeding?" He asked once he had returned, noticing that the napkin was stained a darker shade of red than when he had left.

"Looks that way" I sighed, sitting myself down at a table.

"I can't really do anything until the bleeding has stopped. Try raising your hand slightly, that'll reduce the blood flow"

I leant my elbow onto the table, holding my arm and finger up. Feeling and looking like the biggest moron on the planet, which I just so happened to actually be.

Minutes later the bleeding seemed to be coming to a halt, and I removed the handkerchief to do a quick check.

"It's no longer leaking. What next, doctor?" I asked, as he sat opposite me at the table. He picked up some wipes that were in the box, before ripping them open.

"Here, give me your hand" he said, holding his hand out, waiting for my own to be placed into his. First he wiped the dry blood away from my palm and the bottom of my finger, before slowly making his way up to the cut. As he wiped the cold material over the place of impact, I tensed up at the stinging sensation that soared through my hand. "Now we need that to dry out" he stated, still holding my hand in the same position.

"How do you know all of this?"

"How do you not? This is basic first aid" he laughed. "I used to be in the fire department so I had to take a few courses, nothing major. It's just a cut on the finger. Although it was done with someone's drinking glass, so it's best to get that shit cleaned." He pulled a small bandage from the kit, and started to wrap it around slowly, making sure every now and then that he wasn't causing too much pain.

Picking my phone from my pocket, I decided to take a quick snap of Q tending to my injury, documenting the disastrous moment on my instagram. Quoting the picture 'how to get an ex firefighter to come to your rescue #taketipsladies'. I thought the caption seemed lighthearted and comical, what girl didn't drool over the idea of a firefighter?

"All done" he smiled up at me as I looked down at my finger, which throbbed intensely.

"I'm gonna need something strong to take the pain away, stat."

"Well being the doctor that is just what I was going to suggest" he said, before getting up to put the first aid kit away.

"So, where shall we go?" I smiled, ready for this night to take me to extremely weird places.


	4. on the right side of the wrong bed

We had been at a bar that was, and I quote, less than popping, for around and hour now. There was no lively atmosphere, and the only ones who seemed to be having a good time but by the others presence alone was Q and I.

"So this bar is for depressed middle aged citizens, huh?" I tried to make a joke.

"Which is exactly why I'm in it, cheers to that." He said, raising his glass.

"Oh don't say that!" I half scolded him. "Can we get out of here?" I have an idea that'll make you feel less of a middle aged depressed citizen." I said, standing up without even waiting for an answer from him. I just expected him to follow my lead, which he was already doing.

As we walked down a street, much darker and quieter than any other street in New York, I began to realize that Q, a native New Yorker, didn't know about all of the hidden gems that I knew existed amongst the city.

"Where are we going? I'm just about expecting to walk into a meth lab." He said as we walked down a dark alley.

"Just here" I turned around, smirking over my shoulder at him as I stood in front of a black door lit up by one light over the top of it. As I knocked on it, a burly bouncer opened up, before scanning us both, before letting us in.

As we both walked in, I turned around once more to see Q scan the room, taking in his surroundings. That was when the realization hit him, and his face began to light up. I knew it would work.

"You bought me to a strip club?" He said through a Cheshire grin.

"That I did." I smiled back, before heading straight for the bar, with Q following not so far behind me. Sitting at the stools at the bar, we ordered our drinks before I turned to face him. "So, let me listen to you talk about how awesome I am for the next hour or so." I said, ushering my hands towards myself.

"Well I'm not gonna be one to deny that." He replied, raising his eyebrows whilst taking a gulp of his drink. "I never even knew that this place existed." He placed his glass back onto the bar top.

"One of those guys thinking he's been every strip joint in town?" I half messed, half was serious. He did seem like he would know where the odd one or two strip clubs resided.

"Not so much here. New Orleans, definitely."

"I love New Orleans. The only time I've ever taken a body shot of a 60 year old and was praised about it. Spring break '09, baby" I now lifted my glass up, like I had seen Q done many times, before winking towards him and taking a gulp.

"If I ever get time off, we should get down there at some point."

"Oh, so you mean that you won't be spending every moment not at work in my place of work?" I smiled devilishly, seeing him for the first time look lost for words through his smile.

"What can I say? The company is good." His smoothness soon returned.

"And the company can also get you lap dances, I know this one girl, Tiami, you will love her. Ass of an Angel." I said, before grabbing his arm, leading him to where the girls were, him grabbing his drink off the bar to take with him.

"I have to say, I've never met a girl like you in my life." His voice came over the back of my shoulder, close enough for me to hear him over the volume increase of music.

"That's because there are no other girls like me. Now sit." I said, walking in front of him, grabbing his shoulders and forcing him onto the soft seating surrounding the highered floors containing the poles and girls dancing. I scanned my eyes across the room, searching for the one girl in particular that I wanted to subject onto Q. And I soon found her, in her revealing underwear and garters, strutting her stuff the next table away. "Ti! Get that booty over here!" I yelled over Q who I was knelt next to on the seating. Tiami soon made her way over to us both, sitting on the opposite side of Q. He must be thinking that all of his Christmases had came at once sandwiched between the two of us.

"I haven't seen you here in a while, girl! Is this the new squeeze?" She smiled towards Q.

"Nope, this is Q. I'm showing him a real night in New York." I placed one hand on his shoulder, the other on his chest, smirking down at him because he had no idea what he was in for.

"Oh is that the case?" She said, before looking at me, and then back towards Q.

"Indeed it is" I played with him mentally with my words, pushing his hair back, away from his forehead before taking his drink out of his grasp.

I sat back, letting Tiami do her thing, watching as she made every signature move that I knew of her to do. Q definitely seemed to be having a good time, I was actually shocked at how well he had held his composure. This definitely wasn't his first rodeo.

I pulled my phone out, turning it onto my front camera, snapping a video for instagram of myself with Q getting his lap dance in the background. I thought it was a once again amusing post, and I couldn't wait to see Q's reaction when he was to see the video once he had sobered up.

I headed back to the bar to get us some fresh drinks, and upon my return I saw Ti and Q parting ways, it looking like she had given him his number. Walking back up to him, I handed him his new glass.

"Here you go, champ" I said, sitting myself down next to him.

"You're fucking insane." He announced, before taking a sip. "But in every great way possible."

"I mean.. It was only a certain amount of time before you were to figure that one out." I joked back, never knowing quite how to take a compliment.

After our time in the strip club had come to an end, we found ourselves wondering the streets, as I set my eyes on the food cart at the end of the road, ushering Q to head towards it with me.

"Now you really are living life on the edge, eating street meat at 3am" he chuckled. I made sure that I rolled my eyes, before ordering him and myself a cheeseburger.

"Live a little." I said, turning around and handing him his burger, before he grabbed changed out of his pocket and paid for the both of us. "Hey, I was gonna pay." I protested.

"You took me on the best night out I've had in ages, I'm pretty sure I can spare 4 bucks in your honor" he laughed.

"Eh, fair point." I said, before plunging my teeth into the warm meat held into my hands.

As we continued our stroll, it was Q's turn to want to take a picture for instagram, mostly because he was - and I quote - amused by how big my burger looked in my tiny hands. Our night out being very much documented online, that probably being a constant reminder of such a good night.

Finishing of the deliciousness that could possibly repeat on us tomorrow, Q leaned his hand out to hail a cab for us both.

"Do you just wanna go back to mine tonight? That way you don't have to make the drive back to Staten Island tonight and you can easily pick up your car tomorrow." I suggested as we got into the back of the cab.

"Makes more sense." He said, pulling the door up behind him.

Once I had given the driver my address, it had taken him just over twenty minutes to pull up outside of my apartment, the quickest time I had ever gotten home, thanks to the slight calmness of such a late hour.

Unlocking my door, we both climbed into the apartment, us both munching some more on the chips I had pulled out of the cupboard, acting like the intoxicated baffoons that we were.

I poured two glasses of water, before handing him the other.

"Here, drink this. Save yourself from the hangover tomorrow." He drank his then and there, as I took mine into the bedroom, and placed it onto the night stand. "Are you not coming to bed?' I yelled from the bedroom as I pulled the blanket down.

"Oh I thought this was a couch only kinda deal" he said as he appeared in the doorway of my bedroom.

"If you want no covers or cushions" I said, letting him make the choice instead. He didn't vocalise his answer, instead he walked towards the bed and started to remove his shoes, before his belt and jeans.

I pulled my pants off, seeing Q widen his eyes at my sudden move, little did he know I slept in only a shirt every night, and I guess it was just a force of habit alone that I had undressed in front of him.

"I'll tell you who has an ass of Angel, and its not just Tiara" Q stammered, as he climbed into bed.

"Tiami" I corrected through a laugh, before the realization of what he just said hit me. "Looking at my ass, were we?" I asked as I got into bed next to him, making sure to not take my eyes off him. Purposely wanting to see if he could make his stance or if he would crumble.

"It was a nice ass, and it was right there. What can you do?" He said, returning the instense eye contact.

"So did you get Ti's number?" I asked, the both of our voices at a more calm and relaxed tone.

"She gave me her number, yeah." He replied.

"So are you gonna call her?" I asked, but he remained completely silent. "Not your type, huh?"

"Let's just say, why hang out with the second best ass in all of the city when you're in bed with the first." He smirked.

"I can do everything that she did, if not better, too." I joked, clearly not a stripper. But Q clearly not understanding that what i had said was a joke.

"Show me." He said, propping his head up against the headboard.

"Show you what, my moves?"

"Fuck yeah" he said at a low tone, like he was turned on almost by the thought alone.

"How am I supposed to show you without any music?"

Q pulled his phone that he had placed on the night stand, before loading up a song, which I'm almost certain was a Wu Tang Clan song. Something of which was definitely not a song to shake your stuff to. I straddled his legs over the blanket, before sighing and grabbing his phone from his grasp, scrolling through a list of songs until I had found a much more suitable tempo.

I slowly began to start grinding my hips, letting the music take over my body, twisting my hips to the rhythm, before I felt Q's hands slowly slide up my thighs.

"No touching the talent" I leant forward, our faces mere inches apart as I saw him take a small peak down my shirt as I was bent over on his lap. I definitely was aware that he was more than turned on, but I knew that it was all just fun and games. He and I wouldn't go any further, due to our loyalties to Sal. I stepped aside, pulling the blanket off of him, tossing it to the side of the bed. "Sit up more." I said, as he sat completely upright, leaning his back against the headboard and not just his head.

I returned to his lap, but facing the opposite way, so I was now sat in a reverse cowgirl position. I was definitely having a lot more fun with this than I had originally intended, but the compliments he had paid on my butt had given me the confidence to use it in my stride.

My less than stripper skills proved themselves after a few moments when I was more or less just performing sex moves instead of dance moves. I lifted my hands to my hair, the slight shift in position causing my to grind to become more forceful. I got up and turned around, placing my hands onto his shoulders, using them to hold myself up. I suddenly began to notice that he was becoming hard from my movements, and the friction of his hardness rubbing against my core through my underwear became a feeling of one I had missed so much - pleasure. I continued the pace, if not a little faster, us both knowing what we were doing at this point, but neither one of us putting an end to it.

His hands returned to my legs, running his finger tips up and down my bare thighs, before one of his hands kept highering to my underwear. I lowered myself to his chest, at an angle urging him to slide his hand straight into my panties. He looked me in the eyes, biting on his bottom lip, knowing that he shouldn't be doing that, but wanting nothing more than to do it.

"Do it" I whispered. Before his hand slowly made his way into my underwear, rubbing my clit gently with his middle finger. An action that Sal hadn't yet discovered to be an important one, not surprising me at all that Q was the one out of the pair to be aware of it's affect.

I began grinding myself along with his movements, moaning slightly at his touch. Feeling himself become harder under me. I reached my hand behind me, rubbing his length over the fabric of his boxers, noticing that he was more than ready to fuck me, and that's all I wanted him to do in that moment. Feeling how turned on he was, was an instant turn on in itself.

"Do you have a condom?" I paused my movements, our eyes locking contact once more as he nodded, removing his hand from my underwear and reaching for his wallet that was in the pocket of his pants on the floor.

Taking it from his grasp, I ripped the packaging open before sliding his boxers down slightly, grabbing his length in my hands, applying the condom slowly. He was much bigger than Sal that it caused more excitement than it did guilt. I knew that this would make up for every moment where I had craved something more, just by looking at him alone.

I got off the bed, Q watching me as I slid my underwear off, holding his hand out to accompany me back onto the bed and straddling his body.

Holding his length once more, I lined myself up, running the tip along my entrance, preparing myself for him to enter me. A low hiss escaped his lips as I slowly sunk myself onto his length, and a shocked moan that I just couldn't contain sprung from my lips at the amount of pleasure I had received from that one small stroke.

Placing my hands on his chest, I began to roll my hips, letting him hit certain spots that I could only wish for Sal to hit. He began thrusting his hips upwards, the sounds of our skin meshing with the others filling the room.

Q flipped us over, and I could see the hunger in his eyes begin to possess his body, and in that moment I knew that I was in trouble. He entered me once more, now being anything but gentle as he thrusted into me at an amazingly rapid pace.

"Holy fucking shit" he groaned from above me, his hair falling from being tucked behind his ears. "You like that?" He panted in question to the moans that were something I could not control from the amount of pressure building up inside of me.

"Uh huh" I moaned, a withering mess beneath him, letting him continue to do what he pleased with my body.

The bed began to knock against the wall as his pace showed no sign of slowing down. I raked my nails down his shoulders and back, needing more ways to let my body contain this feeling rather than screaming it into the night. I sunk my teeth into the front of his meaty shoulder, knowing that he was one that enjoyed vanilla sex just as little as me.

He retracted himself, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand before hinting at me to turn over onto my hands and knees through pants. I saw his hand reach over my head, before the pillow in front of me disappeared into his grasp. I felt him lift me up by my waist, planting the pillow beneath my stomach, letting it raise my hips and butt a little higher, before I felt the tip of his dick return once more, teasing my clit before sinking back into me once again. The new position and angle driving me more crazy than before, his hands gripping roughly at my ass as he pounded into me, not holding back one bit.

"Oh my god, Q, don't stop, don't fucking stop." I moaned once more, until a heavy groan escaped his lips, before his intensity somehow increased even more. The encouragement of my words seemed to work more than wonders. "You're so fucking good" I purred as I leant the side of my face onto the bed, grabbing the sheet in my hands whilst arching my back even more, allowing him to hit my G-spot with every thrust.

"Fuck I'm gonna cum" Q said in one swift sentence in which his words sounded like they had been sped up. He knew it was only a matter of seconds before this would end, and I felt a twinge of sadness that the greatest sex that I had ever had in my life was soon to be over.

I heard his breathing become heavier, as a groan erupted from his chest and his thrusts began slowing down until they came to a complete stop. He pulled himself out and knelt back, but didn't move away completely before I felt his hands grab my thighs, turning me over so I was now laid on my back with him in between my legs.

I was starting to notice that Q wasn't the type of guy to let a girl leave his sight without knowing that she had had a good seeing to. Especially when he was now dipping between my legs, with his mouth painfully close to my core.

His tongue slowly attached itself to my folds, running up and down and over my clit, making sure to suck, lick and nibble at every area of importance. I was speechless at that point, the only sounds filling the room were of my breaths, or of me trying to catch a breath when it felt like every ounce of air was being snatched out of my lungs.

His lengthy hair giving me something to grip along with the bed sheet, as he continued to make his assault on my body. I propped my head up on another pillow, letting myself watch him work his magic. Eyes closed, his face in utter concentration with me knowing that he wasn't going to let me walk away until I had orgasmed myself. I didn't know if that was something that he had done all of the time, or if it was a competition thing where he wanted to be the better lay out of his friends, but god, who was complaining at this point.

I felt a flush of energy surge through my body as my body began to contract, calling Q's name out as I came undone beneath his tongue. He held me down tightly with his strong grasp as his tongue continued darting over my clit until I laid there catching my breath, nothing but a hot mess from the antics that we had both just participated in.

Q rolled back to his side of the bed as I grabbed the pillow that was beneath my back, tossing it back up up the top of the bed, before Q took a hold of it and planted his messed up hair onto it.

"You being completely perfect for me in every single way is really going to put a dampner on our friendship, I hope you know" he sighed.

 

I turned towards him, seeing the sincerity in his words.

"You're drunk, get some sleep" I smiled warmly at him, hoping that he wouldn't say anything else that would be much deeper than what he had just admitted to. He had only known me for three days, once he had sobered up he wouldn't nearly be as straight forward. He definitely didn't seem like the type of guy that would just put his feelings out on the line, especially to a girl. Especially to the girl that was dating of one of his dearest, life long friends.


	5. Blackout.

Stretching my arms out, yet to open my eyes to the harsh reality of the morning sun, I snaked my arm over the stomach of the warm, still body next to me. Only as I ran my hand further up his torso, feeling a much different body than what I was used to waking up next to Sal, I immediately shot up in my bed, clasping the bed sheet to cover my exposed chest.

I looked over, seeing the back of a head with a thick amount of shaggy hair laying on the pillow, before I noticed the tattoo.... That stupid, stupid tattoo. 

As soon as I focused myself on Q, I began having slight recollection of the events of last night. But us sleeping together, could that really have been one of them? The question that was, why am I completely nude, was one of which that I could not answer. My mind was still partially hazy.

Collecting my scattered clothes off the floor beside my bed, a shining piece of material caught my eye. It was an empty condom wrapper. Of course it was an empty condom wrapper. As soon as I finally had a steady boyfriend, I would be the one to blow that entirely and sleep with his best friend.

Kneeling on the floor, I heard Q roll over in the bed, groaning slightly as he stretched. 

"What the fuck happened last night?" He moaned, sounding in physical pain.

Maybe he remembered less of last night than I did? And if that was the case, then he would barely remember us sleeping together just as much as I did. If I hadn't found that condom wrapper, then maybe I wouldn't have ever known if it had even happened myself.

I slipped my hand along the carpet, gripping the condom wrapper into my hand and sliding it into the pocket of the pants that I had a hold of in my hand, before sliding them on. I threw my shirt on and stood up, turning around so that I was facing Q who was laid under the covers, looking like a complete mess. 

"We got insanely intoxicated, is what happened last night." I forced a chuckle, hoping that he would think nothing out of the ordinary. If you called waking up naked in your best friends girlfriends bed ordinary, that is.

"I don't want to alarm you, but do you know where my clothes are?" He threw an awkward laugh back. I bent down grabbing a hold of the shirt that laid before me, throwing it onto his lap before doing the same with his underwear and pants.

"I'm so glad that I don't remember the story of how you got completely stark naked" I lied, testing the waters to see if he would recall the actual events of last night.

"Me neither. It's still not the weirdest story I have about waking up naked, however. But that'll be a story to tell when it's too late for you to back out of the friendship." He laughed once more.

"I'll give you some privacy." I smiled before I stepped out of the bedroom, making my way into my kitchen, disposing of the empty condom wrapper into the bin. I couldn't believe that I had let this happen. Especially with someone so close to Sal. He would trust Q with his life, heck, he would probably even trust me with it too. So for us to both betray him in such a way was so completely awful. He wasn't a bad guy at all. The only complaint that I had ever had about him or our relationship was the lack of spice in our sex life. But could I really be that easily lead just for one night of sex that could actually satisfy me? 

I was soon snapped out of my thoughts when Q walked through the door, hair looking more disheveled than ever.

"How are you making being awake look so easy?" He grumbled as he sat at the table. Truth is, I was just as hungover as him. But the adrenaline from the panic of last nights little scenario was the only thing keeping me from hiding in my bed all day.

"Trust me, I'm dying on the inside." Literally, he had no idea. "Do you want some breakfast?" I asked, kind of hoping that he would stick around. Maybe it was my paranoia that wanted to keep him close, in case he were to remember anything else. But I wouldn't feel too worried if he were to leave, because he would always come to me first before telling Sal if he just so happened to remember anything else.

"I'd love something to ease the pain on this." He said, rubbing his fingers on his temples. I reached for the cupboard, pulling out some aspirins and pouring a glass of water, placing it onto the table in front of him.

"French toast sound good?" I smiled down at him as he looked up through popping a pill out of the packet.

"It's like you read my mind." He said, placing the pill onto his tongue before washing it down with the water.

"Good." I smiled back, turning around to gather everything that I needed.

 

Finishing the last few bites of our meals, Q announced that he should be leaving to get home and feed his cats. Much to my relief knowing that he wasn't going into work, hanging around with the friend he and I had completely fucked over last night. 

"Uh.. April?" Q called from the front door. 

"Yeah?" I replied as I walked up to where he was standing.

"I now realize that I obviously wouldn't have drove here last night... But do you know where the hell my car is?" He ran his hands through his hair, before replacing his cap back onto his head.

I wish I could have forgotten that we had hooked up as easily as I had forgotten where his car was, because I honestly had no clue where he had parked it in the first place.

"Do you want me to drive you home?" I asked, laughing at the situation.

"I mean sure, yeah." He laughed too, yet sounded slightly frustrated. "But if you happen to figure out the whereabouts.. You should probably let me know. I have work tomorrow." 

I grabbed the keys for my car from the kitchen counter, before following Q to my car parked outside of the building.

Making the drive over the bridge to Staten Island, the car journey was a very calm and quiet one at that. This was the first time that we had been around the other without alcohol playing a main role, so there definitely was a twinge of awkwardnes in the air.

"So.. I have to ask this.." Q started as we pulled up outside of his house.

"Go on.." I said, beginning to feel nervous.

"You.. I... You, when you woke up, you didn't.. I mean, you were clothed.. Right?" He stammered.

"Me? Of course I was, are you kidding!" I forced a laugh. "You were the only one that decided stripping was a good idea, I'm afraid." 

"Oh really.." He said, still sitting in the passengers seat.

"What?" I asked back, his reaction confusing me.

"Nothing, nothing. I'm just completely blank from last night. I can't even remember one detail." He smirked before opening his car door and stepping out. He turned around, bending over, popping his head back into the car. "Thanks for the ride. If you see my car... You know the drill." He said, before tapping the roof of the car, shutting the door shortly after.

I needed to revalute the seriousness of what had happened last night, because it definitely seemed like it would only be a matter of time before Q remembered. Do I tell Sal? Or do I wait for Q to remember and pretend that I had forgotten the whole time? I didn't know what to do. All I did know was that just because he doesn't remember it happening.. doesn't meant that it didn't happen, and I had to stop acting like that was the case.


	6. Flashbacks.

Making my way into work that same evening, I spotted the familiar red jeep in the car park. Of course that's where he would have left it. My mind was just in too much of a frantic panic to think of anything remotely logical sounding.

As I pulled my phone out to text Q letting him know where his car was, I felt someones hand tap my shoulder from behind.

"Hey gorgeous." Sal smiled as I turned around, proceeding to pull me in for a peck. 

"What are you doing here?" I smiled, not expecting to see him so early in the evening. He was usually working, or so was I so our usual dates were those of late ones or the breakfast variety. He held up a set of car keys.

"Q said he left his car here." He smiled, before looking behind me at the parked vehicle. Instantly worrying me that he had full remembrance of where his car actually was, but denied the knowledge of us sleeping together? What if he was doing the exact same thing that I was doing, just to keep his friendship intact with Sal?

"And you're picking it up for him?" I asked, curious as to why he wouldn't come and get it himself. Possibly to avoid me after last night? Who knew, definitely not me.

"He's already done the journey once today, he doesn't want to again, especially that hungover. That chick running him through hoops last night, huh?" He asked. 

"Huh?" I questioned, still not having an idea of the majority of what had happened last night. 

"He said he went home with some girl. Jesus, how much did you guys drink last night?" He laughed, shaking his head. 

"So I guess you're not sticking around to keep me company?" I asked, pouting my bottom lip out. Hoping to change than subject more than anything. Well, that and work was always extremely boring at this hour, so I hoped he would stick around.

"Q and I were gonna go to a game. I'd invite you to come but.." He pointed towards the building of my work.

"You guys suck." I sighed.

"I know. How about tomorrow? I'll come and take you out some place nice?" He smiled, looking hopeful.

"Tomorrow is more than good for me." I smiled back, before leaning in and giving him a kiss. 

"Then I shall see you tomorrow, baby." He kissed me once more before walking over to Q's car.

"I hope you feel as ridiculous driving that thing as you probably look." I yelled as I made my way into the doors. I always knew he had a slight dislike for Q's car, mostly because of the intense color. 

After I had finished up my shift for the night, I had finally settled in on the couch, about to tuck into the Chinese take out that I had picked up on my way home when I received a text. Picking it up from the coffee table, I saw the name Brian Quinn printed across the screen. That's weird.. I thought to myself. I had never asked for his number, and he hadn't ever given it to me. Maybe it was another one of the details that I couldn't remember from the previous night.

'You up?' It read. 

'Yes, why?' I replied. It was only 11pm which was still relatively early for me, I would be up for a few more hours yet. 

'I'm in the neighborhood, want some company?' He asked. 

So he remembered where he had parked his car... And where I had lived.. The thoughts that I had tried to push aside where everything wasn't fine and dandy were now creeping back. He must remember something about us hooking up, he had to, and now was a decent enough of an opportunity as any if I was going to potentially get some answers to what he did and didn't remember from last night. But I just couldn't bring myself to put myself in that situation. I couldn't handle not being in denial. At least in this case there would be no confrontations, there would be no falling outs of life long friends, and there would be no break ups. I knew at this point I was lying to my boyfriend, but I would ruin more than just our relationship. I would near enough ruin his life. That would be messing with his best friend and his career, how could I possibly bring myself to ruin so much over a drunken night that I could barely remember? Sure, it was an awful approach to the situation, but telling him the truth would be a much worse of an outcome.

'Bout to go to bed, still rough from last night. Sorry' I sent back.  As much as company would be nice, his company should be the last one that I needed right now.

Around a half hour later, there was a light knocking at my apartment door. I opened it to reveal Q standing before me.

"What are you doing here?" 

"I was passing and saw your light on, figured you'd hadn't gone to bed yet. I come bearing gifts" he announced holding up a bag of fast food. It was in that moment when I noticed that he had had a few drinks.

"I guess you better come in" I said, not necessarily mad, because if last night didn't get to the point that it had done, I would have happily hung out with him tonight.

Sitting down on the couch, sharing out the food between us, the small talk between the two of us began to flow.

"I'm gonna tell you something." Q said, finishing the fry that he was holding between his fingers. I raised my eyebrow awaiting his next sentence. "That first night.. I took your phone so I had an excuse to come back and talk to you again." He began laughing, shovelling another fry into his mouth. "It was laying right there in front of me, so I just took it." His admission and reaction making me laugh also, not really at this moment sure why he had admitted or had even done such a thing.

"Why?" I said, smiling towards him. He shrugged whilst taking a sip of his drink.

"Who the fuck knows. I like you, you're fun to hang out with. I guess it seemed less weird to have an excuse to come and see you every day." 

"Maybe" I smirked at his comment.

"Did you think it was weird?" He began laughing again.

"No, actually. It was nice. Your company is nice." His composure soon relaxed once more.

"Oh man, good. I was worried after last night that it would be weird." My heart in that moment dropped into my stomach. What did he just say?

"What, why?" I questioned, now just needing to know more than I wanted to before. Especially after a comment like that. 

He folded up the wrappers in his hand, placing everything that he had onto the coffee table before him.

"What, nothing?" He said, before looking towards me.

"You said last night, why would it be awkward?"

"Nothing, no reason. Just the waking up naked thing and the strip clubs and everything" he started speaking faster than usual.

"Oh... Okay.." I slowly said, keeping my eyes on him as he continued looking ahead of him. 

"Ap, really, I was just worried over nothing." 

"I think I'm just gonna head to bed.." I yawned. "You want that couch offer?" I suggested, the memory coming back to me seeing him sat on the couch in question.

"I'll take the couch offer." He half smiled, definitely remembering that part of the night. At this moment I would have bet my life on him remembering that we had slept together. All it would take was just one of us to stop pretending that it didn't happen, because the tension and the feeling of the elephant being in the room was most definitely there.

"April?" Q spoke up as I was making my way to my room. I turned around so that I was now facing him, awaiting what he was about to say next. "I know that you remember too." He sighed. Why he chose to say it at this moment was beyond me. Maybe it was the alcohol he had consumed? In that case I probably should have counted myself lucky that he told me instead of Sal.

"What are you talking about?" I pretended to not know what he was talking about, walking over the the couch that was opposite him and perching myself on the arm.

"I was still wearing the condom when I woke up... I know what happened. Throughout the day more and more has been coming back to me, too." He sighed, and all I could do in that moment was look at the floor. "You trying to avoid me told me all that I needed to know. I know that you remember. And I also understand why you don't want to. But it happend.." 

I began rubbing my face, trying my best to come up with at least something to say. The worst feeling was having nothing. I knew were had both fucked up, and I knew that we both knew that. I also knew that neither one of us knew what to do about it.

"It shouldn't have happened.." I said, stating the obvious.

"I know." He exhaled.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"I've known him 26 years and never bretayed the guy once. He'll never talk to me again." 

"I promise you that I never not told you that I remembered to save my own skin. This was all about your friendship, if you have no friendship then you have no career. I can't mess those things up for not only him but everyone involved."

"So by that you're implying that you do not want to tell him?" He looked me in the eye. I nodded slowly, biting my lip anxiously.

"We were drunk.. It.. I don't know, Q. It shouldn't have happened. It wouldn't have happened if we were sober." 

"I know." He groaned, running his hands through his hair.

"What about you? Do you want to tell him?" I asked. He remained silent staring off into space for a few minutes, before shrugging his shoulder lazily.

"I dunno." He mumbled. "I can't lose everything. It'll ruin it for everyone else. It could pull the plug on everything." How much he hated the fact that he had to lie to his best friend was clearly getting to him, but it was too late now. We had already messed up. And majorly at that, too. "Maybe it would just be for the best to keep it to ourselves." He now looked back up towards me.

"I think so too." I sighed. Even though the situation was that of an awful nature, I couldn't bring myself to ever feel sympathy for either myself or Q. We were both as guilty as the other. Sal was the real victim here, and I would have to deal with that guilt every time that I looked at him.

"I'm sorry, April." He said.

"Don't be, it was the both of us." I replied.

"But if I hadn't of made you give me that lapdance then this probably wouldn't have happened." His words making my mind instantly recall that moment for the first time since I had sobered up. The way his fingertips slid up my thighs, the way his touch was rough yet gentle at the same time.

"I still did it." I stated. "We're both just as bad as each other." 

"Maybe." 

"Let's just get some rest. There's no point blaming yourself, so please don't." 

"I'll try my best. Goodnight April." He forced a smiled as I got up off the couch.

"Goodnight Q" I replied, making my way back to the bedroom, climbing beneath the sheets almost feeling dirty after what I had been doing in them the previous night.

                                                      -

The next night had come quicker than I had expected, my shift at work seemed to fly by for the first time in a while, and I was now back at my apartment getting ready for Sal to come and pick me up to take me out.

Putting the finishing touches to my make-up, I heard the familiar tapping of Sals keys on my door. Something he had always done instead of knocking.

"Hey beautiful." Sal smiled as I opened the door, revealing myself to be in a short silk robe instead of fully clothed.

"You're early!" I stated as he pulled me into a hug.

"I know, but I missed you." He murmered into the side of my neck.

"Just let me go and get changed real quick and I'm all yours." I smiled towards him before making my way back to my room. 

After throwing on a cute dress, I gave my hair one last swipe with the brush before returning back to see Sal reading one of my magazines that I had left on the couch.

"Enjoying yourself?" I chuckled as I made my way to where he was sat, sitting myself on his lap. 

"I am now." He replied, rubbing his hands delicately over my thighs, my mind going back to Q doing the same thing, causing me to snap back to reality quickly and jump off his lap. "Woah, what's wrong?" Sal asked worried, noticing the expression on my face.

"Nothing, you just.. tickled me is all." I laughed, feeling like an idiot for reacting so obviously. Sal just gave me a look like I was the weirdest person on the planet, and in that moment I probably seemed like it.

As we sat at our table, sipping on the wine that are had ordered, Sal looked at me lovingly from the other side of the table, the same usual smile taking over his face.

"You're completely perfect, you know that?" He said, reaching for my hand. And in that moment it felt like Q was sitting right in front of me as I remembered him spout almost the exact phrase of words that night he was laid next to me. Shaking the thoughts away, I finally gripped my hand around his that was holding mine.

"I wouldn't go that far, but thank you. You're not so bad yourself." I smiled, rubbing my fingers along his. Sal was just about to speak once more when three girls walked up to our table.

"Sal!" One exclaimed. "Do you mind taking a picture with us?" They all turned their sights onto Sal, who looked towards me. I nodded letting him know that I was fine with it.

"Do you mind taking the picture?" One girl asked, handing me her phone.

"Sure." I smiled, taking it from her grip, focusing the lense on them all and taking the picture.

"Thank you." The girl said as I held her phone back to her. Amongst taking it from my grasp, she looked back up at me. "Wait, you're Q's girlfriend, aren't you? Is he here too?" She asked.

"Wait, what?" I questioned, laughing at the same time at the comment that had just came out of her mouth.

"Is Q here too?" One of the other girls now asked.

"No, I'm here with Sal." I laughed once more.

"Oh, okay.." One of the girls replied. "Well thanks for the picture!" She said, before the other girls said their thanks too before heading off.

"Well that was weird." Sal stated as I sat back down in my seat.

"What was?" 

"That they think that you're Q's girlfriend? Don't you think that's weird?" 

"I guess they've never seen you and I together. Q and I are with the times and are actually using social media." I scrunched my face towards him. In that moment, he pulled out his phone and took an unexpected snap of me sat with my wine glass in my hand.

"There, in with the times now." He said, tapping the screen of his phone a few more times.

After our dinner had been devoured, we made our way back to Sal's place. Instantly as we made our way through the door, he snaked his arms around the back of my waist, planting kisses down the side of my neck. I giggled at the feeling, leaning my head slightly so that he would have better access.

Traipsing our way into the bedroom, I turned around so that we could finally attach our lips to the others. Before I laid myself onto his bed, sliding myself up to the middle.

He climbed above me, removing his shirt before kissing me once more. Kissing his way down my neck, he continued running his hands down my sides until he slid them up my dress, grabbing the material and pulling it up and over my head leaving me in just my underwear. 

He began to trail kisses from just above my naval, continuing to get lower with his kisses. He tucked his fingers under the hem of my panties, slowly pulling them lower, revealing my bare skin to him. He now pulled them off completely, parting my legs before kissing the inside of my thigh multiple times, before repeating the same thing on the other leg.

He slowly began to attach himself to my most intimate area, delving his tongue in every crevice of my folds, licking further upwards towards my clit. I reached my hand down, ready to grab a fistful of hair like I had only just remembered doing that night with Q, but not being able to as easily with the length of Sal's hair. As the twirls of his tongue came into play, more of that night with Q flowed back to me, the way his stubble felt against my skin, the way he closed his eyes as he concentrated on pleasing me. I had to shake the thoughts of him out of my head as I opened my eyes, looking down, half expecting to see Q laid there, but instead I was met with Sal positioned between my thighs. It was like everything that was happening tonight was a moment of deja vu. Every slight thing that Sal did every now and then would reopen a memory from that night that I had forgotten, and it was like I couldn't stop myself in comparing the two inside my head.

I heard the clicking of his belt undo and he knelt up before me, his sudden change of movement bringing me back into the moment.

He climbed off the bed, searching through the drawers at the side of the bed, before removing his jeans and hoping back into bed, straddling me once more.

"I was just getting a condom" he chuckled, and that was enough to completely make me tense up, placing my hands to his chest, trying to sit up beneath him. Everything in this night was all too familiar to what had happened with Q, and the guilt was now too overpowering. "Okay, what is going on with you tonight?" Sal asked as he sat himself next to me. "You've been acting skittish all night." 

"I.. I can't do this." I stated, getting up and picking my underwear and dress up off the floor, before placing them back onto my body.

"What do you mean? Can't do what?" 

I sat myself on the end of the bed, placing my face into my palms. Sal crawled up next to me, placing an arm around me.

"I can't be with you anymore.." I said, trying my best to hold back tears. I was in no position to cry, I was the one in the wrong. And now the guilt was eating me alive. 

"April.. Don't say that. What's wrong? Why are you saying that?" He asked, stumbling over his words as he tried his best to make sense of what I was saying.

"I.. I slept with someone else.."


	7. How's your poker face?

"You're playing, why would you say that?" Sal stuttered over his words.

"I'm sorry.." I looked up at him, letting him know that it was in fact the truth.

"When.. Why?" He asked.

"A couple of nights ago.. I was drunk, I didn't mean to do it, I didn't even remember doing it!" 

"So that makes it all okay, then." 

"No, it doesn't. That's not what I meant. It's just.. If I could go back.. You're so good to me I c.."

"Who was it with?" He cut me off.

"What?" 

"Who was it with?" His voice now much more stern. 

"Just some guy." 

"Some guy who, April?" 

"I don't remember his name." I lied. It was Brian. Your best friend Brian. Sal immediately stood up, composing his clothes before heading towards the door. "Where are you going?" 

"You said the other night, right? The night you were with Brian?" I nodded sheepishly. Had he pieced it altogether? "Well maybe he knows who it is."

"He went home with another girl, you know that. He didn't see anything." 

"And I'm supposed to just take your word for it? You cheated on me, how am I supposed to believe anything that comes out of your mouth at this point. I wouldn't even be surprised if you were the girl that he took home!" He raised his voice slightly, before slowly walking towards me. "It wasn't Brian, was it?" He now seemed much more calm.

"Why would I sleep with Brian?" 

"Why would you cheat on me? You two have been hanging out every night." 

"Would you listen to yourself? He is your best friend." ..And I was an awful person..

He tensed his face up, rubbing his face with one hand before sitting himself back on the bed.

"You're right, I'm sorry." He said, sounding stressed to the brim still. "I just didn't expect this to happen." He sighed.

"If I could take it back I would. I wish it never happened." 

Sal now looked at me, not saying anything. Like he was pondering what to do in his head. 

"And how am I supposed to know that you won't do this again next time that you're drunk?" 

"You don't. But you know that I rarely even drink. It was just one night where everything went horribly wrong." Sal picked his phone up, before dialing a number and placing it to his ear. "Who are you calling?"

"A cab so you can go home." Ouch, that comment hurt way more than it should have.

I got off the bed, making my way to collect my coat and purse from the lounge, before Sal made his way out of the bedroom, throwing his phone onto the couch.

"Your cab will be here in ten minutes." He said, making his way into the kitchen. I followed behind him, watching as he poured a glass of water for himself.

"What does this mean for us.."

"You cheated on me Ap.. I can't just forgive you for that so quickly." 

"So you wanna break up? Is that what you're saying?" He clenched the glass of water against his chest as he leant against the counter, just looking at me. I could see the hurt in his face, I could see that he wanted everything to work out for the better, but the fact that he couldn't or wouldn't say those things made it all clear to me. "Right, okay, I get it. I'm just gonna go and wait outside." I said, as I made my way back through the apartment and outside to wait for my cab.

Arriving back at my apartment, it wasn't too long before my phone was ringing. Looking at the caller ID, I saw that it was Q. He was probably the first person that he went to about what had just happened, and I had to answer. He might have told Sal the truth after all. I had seen first hand how hard it was to not tell him the entire truth. But I couldn't be the one to ruin everything for everybody.

Putting the phone to my ear, I awaited Q to speak first.

"You wanna go out?" His first question was.

"What?" I asked, that not being the conversation I expected to be having ater what had happened between us, and what had just happened between Sal and I. Maybe he hadn't confided in Q after all.

"It's pretty simple, don't you think?" He chuckled, which made me smile a little. He always seemed to take the stress off my life, even if it was purely self inflicted.

"Well what do you have in mind?" 

"I know a good casino in the city. How's your poker face?" 

"After what I've just been through, it appears to be just dandy." 

"Huh?" He questioned, clearly confused by my answer.

"I'll talk to you about it when I see you."

"Alright.." He still seemed sketchy. "I'll swing by your place in an hour." 

"See you then." I smiled before hanging up. Sure he probably wasn't the best person to be hanging out with, especially at this moment in time. But it would draw way more attention to this situation if I were to avoid him like the plague. Besides, he was a fun time to be around, I could at least count on him for that. And I definitely would not be drinking any alcohol. 

Walking into my bedroom to redo my make-up, washing away the events from earlier on tonight, I started to wonder what you would even wear to a casino in central NY. The only times I had ever played poker was drunk and in someone's basement. 

I pulled out a plain black dress, one that I had worn to bars and clubs when I felt like not making too much of an effort, after all, I was going out with Q, not on some fancy date. Gliding the brush through my hair, I took one last peak in the mirror before I went and sat in the living room, watching some TV whilst I awaited Q's arrival.

The hour seemed to fly by, and soon enough I was stood in the doorway letting Q inside. He was wearing his usual casual jeans, but had accompanied it with a grey blazer. He looked sharp, we both did.

"So what's up, what's going on?"  He was obviously on edge somehow, maybe thinking that I had told Sal.

"We broke up." 

"What?" He replied instantly, seeming more shocked than he should have been for someone that had just helped in his now ex girlfriends cheating.

"We were fooling around and we just broke up." 

"A sex break up?" 

"No, well.. Kind of. He went down on me and then we broke up."   
"Oh man." Q replied, and I could see that he was trying not to laugh.

"It's not funny!" 

"I know it's not. I mean it is, but obviously I feel bad." 

"Because you seem like you have a lot of remorse for what you have done." I said, crossing my arms.

"I have so much remorse, actually. Not about you. About what I did to him. But I can't help but think.. never mind."

"Don't you 'never mind' me. Tell me what you were going to say."

"I just can't help but think that you two weren't right for each other." 

His answer definitely took me aback a bit. Whenever he had seen Sal and I together we were more than happy. In fact, in general we were always a happy couple. 

"And what makes you think that?" 

"I just feel like.. Maybe he dulls you down. Correct me if I'm wrong here. I love Sal to death, but he doesn't have much fun. I know what type of fun you like. I let you actually be you, and you have a damn good time at that."

"Q, you barely know me.." 

"Don't I? So then tell me what I just said was wrong. Because here you are once again hanging out with me. Doing something Sal would in no way enjoy." I almost hated that he was right in every way, but I couldn't let him know that. We shouldn't be making excuses for us betraying someone that was nothing but good to us. We should be feeling guilty, we should be feeling remorse. Yet instead we continued to spend time together. I didn't understand how it happened so easily. Or how I let it happen so easily. The fact of the matter is that there was just always something so tempting about being in Q's presence, and the wonder of what me might getting up to on one of our infamous adventures. "You look nice, by the way." His compliment pulled me out of my thoughts.

"We should get going." I said, as I made my way out of the door, waiting for him to follow my lead.

Can you check my phone for me, see if I have any texts? I've been talking to the guy that owns the casino, he's the one that set us up with a few free games." Q said as he focused his sight on the road as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it over to me.

"Oh the lifestyle of the famous.." I replied sarcastically, receiving a smirk from Q.

"Hardly." He scoffed in response. 

As I checked his messages, I scrolled through the conversation between the two which had started earlier on in the morning when I noticed a text received at 11am.

'Reserved spot, table #42 @1am. Brian Quinn and April George added to guest list.' 

Had he already planned out our entire night, without even asking me yet? 

"So what would of happened if I didn't come out tonight?" I looked over at him, wanting to see if his body language would change.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he looked down and noticed that I was still looking through his phone.

"You added me as your plus one this morning before you even asked me. What would happen if I didn't come? I was supposed to be spending the night with Sal." 

"Well you're here now, that's all that matters." He looked over at me and then to his phone that was in my hands. I locked it and handed it back to him. It fell quiet before he spoke once more. "I hope you know that I didn't invite you knowing that you had plans with him. And I didn't do it to pull you away from him even if you were. I just wanted us to hang - as friends - to maybe try and get past that night for good. Sound good?" 

"Sounds good." I sighed. I knew that I was coming off a little cold, but I didn't mean to be. Tonight just had a lot of things going on in it. A lot more than I had anticipated.

"Chill, man. Sal will come around.. He always does." 

"Can we not talk about him anymore tonight? Let's just forget our problems and have a good night, like all of the other times?" 

"I have no problem with that." Q replied, as we pulled into the car park. Groups of people were hanging around beside the doors, and two burley bouncers stood before the entrance. As we headed up to them, Q told one of them our names before we were swiftly let in.

"Ah Quinn!" A guy much taller than Brian and myself approached us, pulling Q into a hug. "So who's this fine piece of tail? You finally got someone brave enough to take you on?" Yuck. This guy was yuck.

"This is April, April this is John, the owner of this place." He introduced us before I was pulled in for a quick hug, enough to inhale the cigarette and alcohol on his breath.

"I've been trying to set this guy up for years. It's about time that he finally settled down. I could never keep up with him!" The guys volume seemed to be increasing by the word.

"Oh I'm n.." I tried my best to let him know that we were just friends, before I was interrupted.

"And she's a catch too!" He yelled once more, before pulling Q into a side hug. "This guy is a good guy, April. You got one of the best" he said as he pointed towards Q. Q just stood there taking it, clearly knowing his friend was intoxicated. "I'll leave you two lovebirds to it. I'll see you both later." He said as he noticed more of his friends arriving, before heading straight into their direction.

"What is with everyone thinking that I'm your girlfriend?" I laughed as he walked off.

"Are they?" He cocked one eyebrow. I had completely forgotten to mention this to him before.

"When I was out the other night, some girls asked me where you were because me being your girlfriend would know these things." 

"That's amazing." He laughed, as we started to head to a table. "I have no issue in people thinking that you're my girlfriend at all." He said when I was ahead of him slightly. I looked over my shoulder, catching him as he was looking at my ass.

"Eh.. I guess you're not that weird looking." I mocked, looking him up and down, as he had just done with me.

"With an ass like that you can call me anything you want." He shook his head like he was in disbelief. Definitely doing it on purpose, but it still had my cheeks feeling warm.

After a few games and a few hours, Brian had just returned from the bathroom, but had made a pit stop to the bar on his return, placing a shot of whiskey in front of us both.

"Oh, Q.. I wasn't planning on drinking tonight." 

"Why? Afraid you might do something that you'd regret?" He said, taking a sip from his drink, keeping eye contact with me the whole time. 

I shook my head at his comment, before taking the shot before me, the contents of the glass burning my throat as Q's eyes themself seemed to burn into my skin too.

"You really think you're something special, don't you?" I smirked at his stance.

"I don't think that at all. I just like to say it how it is." He raised his eyebrows.

"And how might this be?" 

He leant closer, placing his hand onto my thigh. "I think that's fairly obvious, don't you think?" His low tone in my ear making the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

"You know what I think? I think it's time to call it a night." I said, looking down at my watch, noticing that it was 4am. I got up from where I was sat, throwing my purse over my shoulder. Q began standing up too, patting his jeans for his keys. "You don't have to leave if you don't want to, I can catch a cab home." 

"It wouldn't be much fun alone." He said, smiling down at me, before we both made our way out to his car.

After we had made it back to my apartment, Q had insisted that he walk me up to my door.

"Thank you for dropping me off." I turned towards him after I had unlocked and opened my door. 

"And thank you for being my good luck charm" he stated, referring to his $400 win on his first game.

"See what happens when you listen to a girls advice?" I replied, having been the one to tell him what move to make in that situation.

"I do see." He stood before me smiling, his hands tucked in his jean pockets. "We should do it again some time?" He raised one eyebrow as he waited on me to answer.

"We should, I had a lot of fun tonight." I smiled back, before we were just stood before one another.

"Don't kill me for this?" 

"Kill you for wh.." I was interrupted by his lips attaching themselves to mine. Softly at first, before I felt him deepen the kiss. He pulled away before I even had the chance to react, but only slightly. I gripped the collar of his shirt in my hands, pulling him in for another kiss, before realizing what I was actually doing. I had just broken up with his best friend hours before, and now I was kissing him? "We shouldn't be doing this." I said, resting my hands on his chest, before the urge to kiss him once more took over my body and before I knew it I was pulling him in once more.

"So why aren't you stopping?" He said in between kisses.

"Shut up." I panted, continuing our make out session. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him into my apartment, not once breaking the embrace that we had. One that I had no intention of breaking. The only intention I now had in mind was getting him into my bed, and that's exactly what I was going to get.


	8. Chinese Whispers

I awoke the next day to the sound of a deep voice groaning beside me, before the events of last night came flooding back to me. 

"Fuck, I need to get going. I'm late for work." Q scoured at his phone, placing it onto the blanket before rifling around on the floor to collect his clothes that were scattered on the floor surrounding the bed. I watched as he tried his best to slide his jeans on in a hurried manner, but failing as he tripped multiple times. "They're going to kill me, I was supposed to be there an hour ago." 

I looked over at the clock on my nightstand. I know that we had had a late night last night, but I was still shocked when I noticed that it was coming up for 4pm. I was just thankful that it was my day off, and that I too wouldn't be in trouble.

"You should probably do something about your hair." I tried my best to contain my smirk as I took the sight of him standing before me. His unruly hair standing up on end only in certain spots. There was no denying what he had been doing last night, but there was a part of me that knew the guys had probably seen that side of him many times before.

He looked over into the mirror on my dresser, flattening the tufts of hair the best that he could with the palm of his hand. "Mind if I use this?" Q asked as he held up a tinned container.

"My deodorant? It's floral scented." I wrapped my hands around my knees that were still covered by my blanket, pulling them close to my chest. Q double checked the lable of the can in his hand before shrugging and applying it to his armpits beneath his shirt anyway.

"What can you do?" He said as he looked up at me, giving me a half shrug.

"Well I guess it beats body odor.." I clenched my teeth, again trying not to laugh. I knew that he would be the butt of most peoples jokes throughout the day. It was definitely a smell that was noticeable throughout the day, and not only to yourself. I had received many compliments on the fresh yet light scent before.

"I guess I'll show myself out?" He chuckled as he looked over at me, engulfed by the blanket which was covering my modesty. Or the little modesty that I had at this point.

"Thought you said that you were late for work?" I cocked an eyebrow as he stood in the doorway of my bedroom, his mind obviously taking him to places elsewhere as he took in the sight before him.

"Right..right.." He replied, shaking himself from his thoughts. "I'll see you around?" 

"Yes you will." I smiled as he left the room. I awaited the sound of my apartment door closing before I headed over to my closet, fetching clothes out for the day ahead. After my shower of course, I wasn't about to do a perfume shower myself. Not after the night that I had. I had definitely worked up a sweat or two.

After showering, I was standing in the kitchen making breakfast at a dinner hour. It wasn't something necessarily weird to me, being a bartender I usually had to work weird hours, which meant by the time that I actually got to eat dinner, it was always way into the early hours of the morning.

As I perched myself in front of the TV, about to lift the remote to change the channel, my phone began took dance across the table.

"Hello?" I sung into the phone after noticing that it was Q calling.

"You didn't tell me that he broke up with you because you told him that you cheated!" His voice was just above a whisper, but I could tell by the tone that he wanted to raise his voice.

"You didn't ask?" I replied, not wanting to gain a raise out of him knowing that Sal wouldn't be too far away.

"I didn't care to ask. You finally broke up!" His voice went a little louder towards the end of the sentence, yet he was sure to regain his composure.

"Well why else did you think we broke up, hmm?" The line soon fell quiet after my question. "Hello?" 

"Look, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." He said, before he hung up, not waiting around for a goodbye. The nature of the phone call had confused me to a degree. What had he expected to of happened? It was definitely something that I was eager to bring up the next time that I saw him.

After a much needed nap, I was taking a sip of the glass of ice cold water that I had just poured when someone knocking on my door almost startled me to death. 

Expecting to see Q standing in front of me as I opened the door lead me to be in shock when I noticed who in fact was actually standing before me. 

"Sal?" I questioned, not being able to hide the fact that he was the last person that I had expected to see at my door.

"Got a sec?" He asked, definitely seeming a lot more calm than the night before.

"Sure" I replied, stepping back to let him in. As I shut the door behind me, I watched as he made his way into the living room, standing by the couch instead of getting comfortable like he usually would when he came over. Something that told me that he hadn't planned on staying long, which made me almost dread the harsh truth or questions that were to follow next.

"I was thinking about what you told me last night." He ruffled his hand through his hair, something that he would do when he was nervous. "I was thinking about it all night." He definitely looked like he had been up all night. His eyes were red, and his hair was less than impeccable. The guy that was standing before me wasn't the happy go lucky guy that I had dated. This was a side that I had never seen, and the fact that I was the one that had made him feel this way was starting to hit me all at once.

"Oh" I replied, not really sure on what to say to that, but at the same time wanting to see where this was going.

"Yeah." He looked down at his feet before looking back up at me. "It was just the one time, right?" 

"Yep." I nodded.

"And you know for a fact that you wouldn't have done that sober?" 

I paused for a moment, recalling last night before I realized his question had meant me cheating. Although I had slept with Q stone cold sober the night before, I definitely wouldn't have done that if I was with Sal.

"I wouldn't have." 

"You swear?" And in that question I could see the eagerness in his eyes for him to hear what he hoped to hear most.

"I promise you, I would never do that sober. I drank so much that night, I barely even remember anything still." 

"And will you also promise me that you will never get into that state again, at least if I'm not there? Because if that's going to be a regular thing then we might as well just break up right now." 

His words instantly caused me to freeze on the spot. Break up right now? I thought we had broke up last night. 

"W-what?" I spat out, the confusion in what he had just said not being something that I could contain.

"What do you mean what? I thought that was pretty reasonable." 

"No, not that part. I thought you broke up with me last night?" 

"You thought that. If you recall - I didn't say anything. I was too pissed, I just needed to be alone." 

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

"Oh, right." I replied, trying my best to not let how I was really feeling show. Had I really done what I had just promised that I wouldn't do, moments after clarifying that I wouldn't? Such my luck.

"What's with that face?" 

"Nothing. I was just confused. I thought we broke up, so to hear you say that we're still together was a surprise." 

"Eager to get rid of me or something?" He smirked for the first time since I had dampened his spirits. 

"Not at all. Just, Q sai.. You know what? Nothing. I'm just glad that we're still together." 

"No, what did Q say?" He frowned at my comment.

"He just seemed to know about me telling you that I.. You know.. Cheated. He was mad that that was the reason why we broke up." 

"As much as I appreciate that from him, it does bug me. Much more than it should." 

"What does?" I asked, confused.

"Just that you hang out with him so much. Especially when I'm not there."

"Why?" I raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"You're kidding? The strip clubs, the gambling? It's sometimes like you're a completely different person with him than you are with me. It's like you morph into this female version of him, and I just don't like it." I scoffed at his comment, not knowing how to take in what he had just said. "Don't do that. You can't sit there and say that everything has been great since the two of you started hanging out. Look at us, April. He's trouble, and when you're with him, so are you. He needs a calming influence, otherwise he goes of the rails. And you let him do that, and it fucks us in the ass." 

I sighed. "Right, I get it." I kinda did. What he said was the truth, but at the same time, I didn't consider the fun that we had to be trouble. I looked at it how I actually saw it, which was innocent fun. Just sometimes with a lot less of the innocent..

"I need to get going, I have to go and see my sister. I'll drop by tomorrow?" 

"Sure, anytime before six. Working all night." I pouted as he walked over to me, chuckling slightly at the face I was pulling.

"You got it." He gave me a quick peck, before he pulled me into a warm hug. "I'm sorry if I haven't been around much. I know that I haven't been the best that I could be, but this has been a learning lesson. We're gonna be good now, alright?" He pulled back slightly, looking me in the eyes. I nodded back, before he gave me another quick squeeze.

"I'll see you tomorrow." I said, as he walked to the door.

"Can't wait." He smiled, before shutting the door behind him.

The feelings that hit me after he left were such bittersweet ones. He had forgiven me for cheating on him that one time. But I had unknowingly done it for the second. But did it really count as something to feel guilty about when I thought I was single? I mean, probably. It was still his best friend and the person that I had cheated on him with the first time. 

There was a knock at the door, pulling me away from the crisis inside my head. Stepping forward, I began to giggle as I opened the door.

"What did you forget this ti.. Q?" I was starting to think that I might need a revolving door for the two of these. I stepped back, signalling for him to come in.

"Assuming by that smile that the two of you sorted things out." 

"Yeah.." I replied, not knowing whether to give him the knowledge that we had in fact, not even broke up the first time. Because he seemed to have thought that we were both very much single.

"I guess I told you that he'd come round. I just didn't think that he would so soon." 

"You knew he was coming over? Why didn't you say something?"

"I didn't know. I came over here to see you, and I saw his car parked outside, so I waited down the street until he left." 

"Stalkerish, much?" I attempted a joke, noticing that Q was looking less than enthusiastic tonight.

"I wanted to see how it went." 

"Well.. It went good. He doesn't hate me, which is always good."

"And he still doesn't suspect anything?" 

"Wouldn't you know that more than me, you knew all of the details earlier." I retorted.

"Yeah, from Joe. I could barely face him all day knowing that I fucked you last night. I knew that he was moping about it, but the last thing that I could bring myself to do was ask him about it. I just couldn't do it. And you know why? Which is the worst part about it all. It's because for some reason I just can't feel bad. I've tried, he's my best friend. But at the same time, it's also you."   
"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"Figure it out, April. It's not rocket science." 

In all honesty, I knew what he was getting at. He liked me. But I couldn't help but think that maybe he liked me because he knew that it was very much off limits. Even if I wasn't with Sal. He didn't seem like a one woman man. This seemed very much like a case of wanting something that you couldn't have. And as much as I liked Q, and appreciated his presence, I would always have that suspect inside me, which acted as a barrier to let me not fall for him so quickly.

"I think maybe you should go.." 

"Why?" 

"Because. We're back together now. And I think that he was annoyed that we used to hang out so much." 

"So now you're going to act like the perfect girlfriend?" He scoffed.

"Well I have a lot to learn from." I said, making sure to keep him in my glare after noticing that he was acting like a child throwing his toys out of the pram.

"This is bullshit." 

"Why are you so mad? I don't want to hurt your best friend. Surely you should respect that? I've already had you yelling down the phone at me today."

"I wasn't yelling." 

"Well you were pissed about something."

"Because you told him that you cheated. That's the last thing that I wanted him to hear. One, because he could have easily paired two and two together and figured out that it was with me. And two, I didn't want him crushed. I know Sal, he can't take this kind of news without overanalyzing everything."

"Shouldn't you have thought about that before you slept with his girlfriend?" 

"Shouldn't you have thought about it? You were the one that cheated." 

"Woooooow." I replied, trying my best to not to laugh at his attempts of trying to make himself seem less of the bad guy in the situation. "If thinking that helps you sleep at night, then you go for it. Now I'd really appreciate it if you would just leave." I said, before opening the door, waiting for him to exit.

He sighed, before shaking his head. "This is ridiculous." 

"That's what I thought." I huffed as he walked past me and out into the hallway of my apartment building. I shut the door behind him, trying my hardest to not rifle myself up over the comments that he had just made. How dare he shift the entire blame onto me? It was almost making me want to tell Sal that it was with him, because at least then Q would really understand that he was just as much to blame in this situation than I was.


	9. Say it.

The next morning, Sal had decided to come and take me out to breakfast, but upon walking up to find a table, I noticed Q already sat at one, knowing full well that he had been invited without my knowledge. Something that I had to downplay considering Sal thinks we've been holding down a great friendship, which we had been doing until last night.

"I hope you don't mind me inviting Q." Sal announced as he sat down at the table, leaving me a chair between them both.

"Of course not" I smiled, when really just seeing his face made me angry. There was no way that him being here wasn't intentional. He had never joined us for any kind of meal beforehand. "Are you guys not at work today?" I tried my best to start a conversation of between them.

"Only to film a punishment at midday, so only around an hour or two of work." Sal answered as he looked down at the breakfast menu. "You should come with us. I could need the support." 

"Why what are they planning on doing to you?" I asked, now having to bring myself to look at Q.

"Nothing too bad. You should come, though." Brian now suggested also.

"I mean, if you guys don't mind me being there, then sure." I answered.

"And maybe we can stop by and grab some drinks when you're working later to return the gesture." Q now looked at Sal as if to ask him if he was in.

"I don't know man.. I don't know if I'm really in the mood for heavy drinking on a Tuesday." Sal groaned, not sounding excited at all, which was dreadful to hear myself because if Sal were to say no, there was a good chance that I'd have to deal with Q alone.

"Pleaseee" I begged, trying my best to make him feel guilty for even thinking about saying no. 

"How can you say no to that?" Brian pointed at me, whilst Sal seemed to be done with both of our attempts.

"Fine, but only one drink and then I'm out. And it better be a free one." He responded, as stingy as ever. 

-

Pulling up to the set of Sal's punishment, the three punishers were seperated from Sal himself, so I was stuck with Joe, Murr and Q whilst the crew went over a few things with Sal.

Joe and Murr seemed to be in a deep enough conversation for Q to feel like he could pull me aside slightly.

"Still hate me?" He asked, seeming like he maybe might have regretted how last night had ended.

"Kinda, yeah." I folded my arms in front of my chest.

"I was a dick, I know." 

"Oh you were more than that, but I'm glad that you somewhat noticed." 

"Are you really gonna still be pissed at me about this?" He asked, clearly getting annoyed.

"You're pretty much letting me take the entire blame for this. Admit that you're up to your neck in this as much as I am or-" 

"What's going on over here?" Joe laughed, trying to alleviate the obvious angry tension between the two of us, but definitely not understanding the severity of it. He probably thought we were just having a disagreement of the sort.

"What? Nothing." I laughed.

"Well it sure looked like something." Joe chuckled once more.

"We were talking about the new Batman movie. She hates it. I, personally enjoyed it." Q chimed in.

"And you were seriously arguing over that?" Joe furrowed an eyebrow as he looked at us both.

"We weren't arguing, just having a discussion." Brian replied whilst looking at me. And it was in that moment that Joe stood before us both, giving us a judging look in complete silence, that I was almost worried that he didn't buy our story and suspected something a lot more believable than batman. 

"You finally met your match there." Joe looked towards me, whilst giving a fed up expression towards Q. "I usually throw in the towel when it comes to superhero discussion with him." He grinned, patting me on the shoulders as he walked off.

I watched as Q kept his eyes on Joe, making sure he was a safe enough distance away before he brought the scenario that we were in back up again.

"Ap, I'm not saying that you're wrong. We'll talk about this later?" He raised his eyebrows, like he was wary of what my response might be.

"Yeah, sure." I said before walking back to sit with the other guys, hearing him sigh as I walked past him.

Sal walked up to the group moments later, looking as nervous as ever. I stood before him, wrapping my arms around his neck trying to give him as much of a comforting hug as I could.

"You guys gonna break that off so we can start filming?" Joe interrupted.

"No" Sal groaned, not looking forward to his punishment one bit.

"Come on, man." Q sounded more than fed up, as Sal pulled away from the hug.

"I'll see you after." I said, giving him a quick peck before joining the rest of the crew behind the scenes.

The punishment in itself was no longer than half an hour, and in that time Sal was locked in a bathroom, getting sprayed with all kinds of gross liquids. Something that was so simple, yet he'd hate more than anything.

"It could have been worse, babe." I laughed at the state of him as we were all standing in the parking lot soon after.

"April, look at me!" Sal said, as dramatic as ever.

"I don't think I can without laughing." I replied, covering my hand with my mouth to hide how hysterical I found this whole scene before me.

"I'm gonna head home and take a shower. I'll see you tonight." Sal huffed, before storming to his car. He was very sensitive at times, today being one of those days. 

"Wait, what about me getting home? You drove me here!" I yelled as he accelerated out of the car park.

"He's such a little bitch sometimes" Q laughed as he walked up behind me.

"No kidding." I sighed as I turned around to face him.

"Wanna ride home?" 

"I'm not really sure that I have a choice in the matter." 

"Your level of gratitude turns me on." Q said extremely effortlessly, which is why the comment seemed to make me laugh.

"Seriously, please shut up. A ride would be nice, thank you." I smiled as he began walking up to his car with me following in hot pursuit.

"So now you definitely don't hate me." Q said, as I sat beside him in the car, buckling my seat belt.

"Who said that? I just needed a ride." I looked at him with an expressionless face. He just looked at me without saying a word. "Nah.. you're right. I don't hate you. That doesn't mean that this isn't entirely fucked up, though." 

"You got that part right." Q raised his eyebrows as he started his car.

"I guess we just have to get over it now. Sal has." 

"And is that what you want?" He peered over at me quick as I thought about my answer to that question a little more thoroughly.

"It's more complicated than that." I sighed.

"How so?" 

"Because he has no idea that we both betrayed him. It's always going to be a constant lie. But there's no way that he can ever know the actual truth at the same time." 

"As long as it doesn't happen again, right?" 

I half nodded, not sure if I could even answer that with complete honesty. We had done it more than once before. What's to say that it'll never happen again? It was always so hard to just say no. As much as I enjoyed Sal and the things he did for me, it'll always conflict with the entirely different relationship that I had with Q. Sal was calm, sensible and caring. Q had a slight danger to him, was more dominant and at most times quite reckless, which always made him seem much more exciting. And then there was the sex, the main reason why it was so hard to say that two lettered word - no. 

 

Once we had got back to my apartment, it was hours until my shift was to start yet so I invited Q in. Probably not my best idea since the little argument in my head just now.

"How have I never noticed these before?" Q asked, as he walked over to my record collection, searching through the endless pile. "You've got so many classics." 

"My grandfather passed a lot down to me, there's even a signed Elvis one in there somewhere." I smirked smugly, knowing how jealous he would be considering his insane love for Elvis Presley.

"Get the fuck out." Q said, scouring his way further to find that one in particular. "No way man, that's so cool." He held up the record before him. "Elvis touched this with his very own hands." 

I laughed at his response, not even sure if he was pretending to be that much of a fan girl at this point. 

"I know, crazy right?" I chuckled.

"So is that why you got the Elvis tattoo, because of your grandfather?" He asked.

"Pretty much, that and I just love the song." I smiled back as he placed the record back into the pile like it was a newborn baby. "Do you want a drink or anything? One of the non alcoholic beverage." I asked, whilst turning the kettle on to make some tea for myself.

"I'll have whatever you're having if you're offering." Q grinned, before sitting down on my couch, taking in everything in the living room that seemed to excite his inner nerd. "You're apartment is awesome." 

"You say that like you've never been here before." I laughed as I walked up to him as I awaited the kettle to finish boiling.

"Well, not completely sober. Or otherwise entertained." 

"Are you trying to say that you're not entertained right now?" I acted offended, even though we weren't doing anything at all. I was boiling water and he was sitting looking at the walls.

"I'm pretty content, actually." He smiled up at me, before I heard the kettle finish and headed back to make the cups of tea.

 

"Here you go." I handed Q his cup, before sitting down on the couch and placing it onto the coffee table in front of me, allowing it to cool down.

"Oh man this is perfect." He said, as he took a sip from his drink.

"Thank you, I tend to pride myself on my tea making abilities." I replied sarcastically.

"So.. have you always done that or is that a more recent thing?" Q sniggered.

"Done what?" I questioned, completely confused by his question.

"Always responding to a compliment in a completely sarcastic way" He chuckled. 

"I didn't realize that I did." I said, being completely truthful.

"Oh you do it a lot. But this was about tea, I thought you'd at least accept that one." He looked at me, seeming more sincere than to be joking.

"Is it a bad thing?" 

"No, it's very modest, I guess. But you shouldn't feel like you don't deserve a compliment. You're more worthy of them than most people I've met in life that ironically have much bigger egos." 

"Murray?" I joked, causing him to laugh.

"No, no. But that was a good one." He smiled at me.

"So give me one, and I'll try to handle it." 

"Give you a compliment?" 

"Yeah, and not a stupid one either." 

"Who's to say there's more to compliment?" I raised an eyebrow pretending to be annoyed by his comment. "Alright alright I'm just kidding. I.... like your hair." He stammered.

"Really?  I questioned, not seeing that as much of a compliment.

"What?" 

"I said don't give me a stupid one!" 

"Okay.. Then.. I'm kinda obsessed with your ass. It's phenomenal." I tried to hide the smile that crept onto my face, wanting to laugh and shrug of his comment like he told me I had always done.

"Well thank you." I giggled to myself. 

"I feel like you struggle more with personal comments, rather than pshyical ones, though." He said, placing his drink onto the table.

"Isn't a comment about my ass personal enough?" 

"Not really." He responded, as calm and collected as ever.

"Hey, I told you to give me a compliment that would make me embarrassed, you're the one that chose to give me one that I could actually handle." 

"So I'll do better then?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Go ahead." 

"Alright then, from the way that you kiss, I can already tell that you'd give insane head." My eyes widened instantly at his comment, before I smacked his arm.

"Brian!" A small amount of laughs escaped my lips. "Okay, I'm not taking that one, I was not expecting something like that." I looked over at Brian sat grinning away next to me, clearly very amused.  
I couldn't help but smile smugly, probably not feeling as nervous as I should have done. Yet little did I know about the sentence that would come out of his mouth next.

"Truth is, I'm so fucking bummed that Sal found you first. You're everything - and if not, probably more - than what I've ever wanted in a girl. I could really see myself being happy with you, and it fucking sucks that I'll never get the chance to see where this could go." He continued looking in front of him, a much more nervous version of himself than I had ever seen before.

"..are you serious?" I asked, knowing that he liked me, but not really knowing HOW much he liked me.

"I'm deadly serious." He now looked me in the eyes. "And maybe I'm wrong for saying that, and maybe I'm wrong for being here too, but I can't help myself, I just wanna be around you."  

His words gave me butterflies, because there obviously was a certain amount of tension between the both of us. I was almost certain if Sal wasn't in the picture then we would have probably done something more about that, but like he said, we'd never have a chance to see where it could go. Even if Sal and I were to break up. Q being involved with me in any way other than platonic could result in the end of his extremely long friendship with Sal, and most likely their career that they had built together.

"I didn't realize that you felt so strongly about me.." 

"I didn't really know myself, either. But I saw your reaction in the car when I asked you that question, and for a split second I thought that maybe you might of felt the same way." 

"What question?"

"As long as it doesn't happen again, right?" He repeated, but I could tell that he wanted an answer this time because I failed to provide a decent one the first time round. I nodded slowly once more. "So then say it." 

"What?" 

"Say that you won't ever want to again." 


	10. Uneasy

"Why?" I asked, almost tongue tied with how I should respond, or if I should even respond. There clearly was feelings between the two of us, ones that we were both very much aware of. But this was the first time that it had been expressed openly. Well, on his side anyway. But he wouldn't have brought that up if he hadn't had the suspicion that I felt nothing more than the same way that he did.

"Isn't it obvious?" He responded.

"No.. I mean why. Why are you doing this?" A fairly reasonable question, I had thought. Like I had said to myself, even if Sal and I were to break up, there was still most likely no way that Brian and I could ever get together without it damaging his friendship with Sal somehow, and that was one thing I couldn't forgive myself for. It's not every day that you find someone with such a lengthy friendship, and a striving business as an outcome of that.

"Do you know how hard it is to see you with him?" 

"And do you know how hard it is to hear you say something like that? It sucks for us both, but neither one of us is the victim here. Sal is. The whole reason why we shouldn't be doing this." 

"It'll happen again, April. And that is exactly why you can't admit that it won't."

"So what do you want me to do? Break up with him and date you instead? Because that would go down well." I huffed, feeling quite done with this conversation. 

"I don't know, April.. All I know is, I can't be around you and stop myself from feeling this way. It's just not going to happen." 

"Then maybe you shouldn't." I said slowly, like the words had came out without my knowledge, and that it was only after I said them that I instantly felt regret. My mind was really at a war with itself. 

"Maybe it's for the best." He agreed. Something that I didn't think he would do.

"Wait, no" I instantly responded, in what seemed like a blind panic.

"What?" 

"I said no."

"No wha.." 

"For gods sake, no, Brian." I said, grabbing his arm and pulling him down the corridor of my apartment, swinging my bedroom door open and pushing him in first.

"You told me to say it, right?" I asked, he nodded, his face now seeming confused. "Then there, that was me not saying it." I said, pushing him so that he was now sat on the end of my bed. I pulled my shirt up and over my head, before I straddled his lap. I placed my hands on his chest, so that he was now laid down, and before I knew it our lips were attached once more. "God forbid you put up any ounce of restraint" I giggled between a kiss, he laughed in response to my sarcasm. For someone that had just agreed to nipping this in the bud, he was having an easy time accepting my advantages.

"Shut up." He chuckled, before turning us over so that he was now on top. He began trailing kisses down my neck, and over my chest, before reaching his hands around my back to unclasp my bra. Throwing it onto the floor, his mouth wondered gently over my bare chest, nipping and sucking my most sensitive of places.

I grabbed the bottom of his shirt and slid it off in one quick movement, and continued to eagerly work my way onto his belt and jeans.

We were mid make out once more when my phone began to ring.

"Do you wanna get that?" Q asked between kisses.

"Are you kidding me? No." I said, pulling him in closer by the neck. I began to slide one hand into his unzipped pants and under his boxers when my phone began to sound once more. As I slowly began to grasp his member, I felt him tense up before he pulled himself away. 

"I can't." He said, as he reached for my phone to check the caller I.D. "I knew it was him, I can't be sat here letting his girlfriend jack me off when he's sat calling you right now. It's like he knows what we're doing or something." He said, leaning back on his knees, zipping his pants and buckling his belt back up.

"He doesn't know anything, Brian." 

"I just can't, April. We both said it, we need to stop." 

I groaned, reaching for my sheet to cover my modesty, suddenly feeling more than uncomfortable to be laid bare in front of him. Or at least half bare in this case. He picked both of our shirts off the floor, before throwing me mine, along with my bra, before placing his own shirt back on.

As we headed back into the living room, an awkward silence filled the room.

"So what does this mean for the two of us? Earlier you said that we both needed to stop and we did. But you also said that you can't be around me. Does that still stand?"

He remained quiet as he walked to my front door, as he opened it, he stopped and turned around to face me.

"I'm sorry, Ap." He replied, which was all the answer that I needed. I wasn't mad, but I wasn't happy about it, and I know that it killed him to see me look such a way, just as much as it killed him to say it. A life without him almost seemed weird at this point. We had grown so close, and were spending a lot of time together. It would just be odd for him to not be around. I walked up behind him after he left, and shut the door behind him. As I heard his car drive off, I remembered the reason why he had left in the first place, which was Sal.

Collecting my phone from the bedroom, I returned to the couch and dialed his number. There had to be a reason why he had called more than once.

"Hey beautiful." He chirped down the line, obviously much more calmer than he was just after his punishment earlier on today, and obviously very unaware what had being going on between his best friend and I ten minutes prior.

"What's up?" 

"I'm headed into town, you free?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm free." I forced a smile.

"See you in ten." He replied before ending the call. Short but sweet, but he must have been driving.

No longer than five minutes went by, before I heard his familiar knock tap on my front door.

"Hey" I smiled as I opened the door, letting him walk in.

"I got us some food." He smirked, holding up a bag of what looked like a chinese take out.

"It's like you read my mind." I said, noticing the feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something of which could either be hunger or guilt.

"Did you have guests?" He asked.

"What?" I replied, walking over to him, noticing that he was pointing to the cups on my coffee table. "Oh, just Q, he dropped me off because you drove me into to work today." 

"Yeah.. I'm sorry about leaving you. I was just so pissed." 

"I know. I was the one that got yelled at, remember?" I played.

"That's weird, though." He announced.

"What is?" I questioned.

"That you made the two of you drinks, but neither one of you even touched them." His comment making me freeze, what excuse could you have for that? And is that enough for someone to click on what had been going on? "Probably talking about some nonsense superhero movie, I assume?" He let out a small laugh. Phew.

"Yeah, something like that." I once more faked a smile, as I watched him look down at his phone, before meeting his eyes as he quickly looked up.

"I think I know why he left." 

"Huh, why's that?" I asked, feeling nervous. I always felt nervous whenever we spoke about him. It felt as if at any moment he would just admit to knowing the whole time, even though there was no way that he would, unless Q were to tell him first.

He turned his phone around, showing me the screen. It was a picture that Q had uploaded, arms around another girl. Typical. Looking at his smug face made me almost feel angry. Perhaps everything that had just came out of his mouth was a lie. But I'd like to think that if he was going to risk the relationship between himself and his best friend that he wouldn't do it just for sex, especially when it was so clear that he could more than easily get it somewhere else.

"Guess this is a new one." He chuckled, before sliding his phone back into his pocket.

"So he does that a lot then?" I decided to quiz, if I was going to find out the truth then who better to ask than his best friend.

"Eh.. Q is Q. You know. You've seen him at the bar, taking girls home." Wrong. I hadn't. I had been the girl. There was never any other, at least one that I was aware off. Besides this one tonight. And the first night we had met. Maybe Sal was right.

"Yeah, he's quite the smooth talker." I replied, voice staying at one tone as I tried to mask the anger. 

"So, I wanted to ask you something." He said, turning to face me.

"Okay.." The uneasy feeling returning once more.

"The guys and I were talking. And we spoke about going on vacation. You up for that?" 

"When?" 

"At the end of the month, so a couple weeks yet." He raised an eyebrow, awaiting an answer.

"Of course I'll come. Sounds fun." I smiled.

A few weeks was enough for whatever Q and I had to fizzle out, considering it wasn't all that serious. I would begin on learning how to be content in my relationship with Sal, and making sure that a mistake like Brian Quinn would never happen again.


	11. Mexi...no.

The few weeks since my last encounter with Brian had flown by, and it was now approaching the end of the month, and also the start of our group vacation. I hadn't seen Brian since the last time that he was at my apartment, which left me definitely throwing out a few excuses here and there to avoid being in the same group setting. But now that would come to an end as I had to spend the next 7 days with him..

"I'm so glad we're finally getting the chance to get away." Sal walked in the room sounding relieved. He had been working every day, as was I, yet I had more reason to be feeling more anxious than excited.

"Me too." I looked up at him, showing him the most convincing smile that I could as I zipped up my suitcase. "Do you mind if I put this in your case? Mine is near enough exploding." I asked, holding up a small navy blue bikini in my hand.

"Only if you model it for me when we get there." He replied, smiling mischievously.

"Of course." I returned the smile, throwing him the skimpy two piece.

To say that things with Sal and I were going great was an understatement. We had finally gotten things back on track again, although the guilt of what I had done to him did keep me up some nights, I would be more than sure to never hurt him again.

"So we should get leaving for the airport soon" Sal stated as he now zipped up his case. "And remind me to call Q before we leave to make sure he's actually awake." He added as he carried our suitcases out to the front door.

"Yeah, sure." I called from the bedroom. Sadly I couldn't forget. I couldn't tell if it was going to be more awkward because we hadn't spoken since then, or just awkward in general. Possibly a mixture of the two of them.

Within the next few hours we were landing in Mexico. Luckily I hadn't had the displeasure of seeing Q on the plane, I only had the dissatisfaction of knowing that he was in fact on the same aircraft. I was thanking my lucky stars that we hadn't been sat closer to one another, even if it was only just a short flight.

Only as we exited the airport, Sal made the noise as if he had spotted someone, which is when I saw him, standing there along with Murr, Joe, Bessy and two other girls. One must have been with Murr, whilst the other with...Brian. Yes, I definitely recognized her from the picture that Sal had shown me the last night that I had seen Brian.

As we all greeted each other, we awaited the two taxis that would pick us all up, and in that short amount of time the girls had made the decision to share a cab, whilst the guys took another. Just my luck.

As we all climbed in once they had finally arrived, I found myself sitting next to the girl herself, who I later found out was named Samantha. The usual blonde, skinny looking girl you would find inviting herself on group trips after knowing the friends and guy himself for just a few short weeks.

Once we were at the hotel, there was no sign of the boys, so we all went up to our separate rooms to freshen up, before all meeting up in Bessy's room after for a few drinks.

"They must be stuck in traffic." Bessy said, looking down at her watch.

"For two hours?" Murr's date, Sarah chimed in.

"Yeah, you're right. They're at the bar. Q would always turn up an hour late to our days or nights out smelling of beer. It's like they can't bring themselves to pass a bar without needing to go inside." Samantha added, throwing in an over the top laugh. The fact that she acted like she knew him and the others so well already irked me, and I found myself already finishing my first glass of wine. She had only just came on the scene, the girl needed to calm herself down. 

"So how are things with you and Q, anyways?" Bessy found herself asking Sam.

"Oh they're amazing. Everything is amazing.. Literally." She said, voice full of insinuation. 

"We all know what that means." Sarah giggled in the corner.

"Seriously, so good. And let me tell you, he's working with something." She laughed too, holding her hands as if to say he had a large penis, making the other girls laugh in response.

"What about you, April, everything going smoothly with Sal?" Bessy now turned the question onto me.

"They're great." I said, pouring myself another glass as I felt three pairs of eyes watching me.

"Oh that's not a good sign at all." Sam decided to poke herself in. 

"What isn't?" I decided to question her back. "Just because I didn't tell the secrets of my sex life?" I continued, trying my best not to sound bitchy, but I didn't like what she was trying to get at.

"It's no secret, we're all friends here." She smirked. No. No we were weren't. We had literally just met today.

"Oh come on, April. Lighten up! She's just messing around. I'm sorry about her, she can be such a prude sometimes." Bessy apologized for me, most likely wanting to keep peace considering we were to spend the next week together. Something that I'd allow her to do just this once, but if she were to repeat the same annoying comments then I would have a hard time letting them slide.

As if God was on our side, I turned around as I heard a commotion out in the hallway, to see Joe enter the room.

"Ah, so you guys have finally returned, then." I announced, never feeling so relieved to see his face before, as much as I loved him.

"Yeah, I got dragged into their crazy antics." Joe rolled his eyes, almost seeming stressed out. Most likely because he didn't drink and had to deal with the others who seemed to be in the holiday spirits from the yelling coming from the corridor.

"I better go check on him." I said to the group, before getting up.

Just as I was about to head out the door, Bessy called out.

"Make sure you meet us all in the lobby at 10! Make sure Sal knows!" 

"Okay!" I called back into the room as I pulled the door shut, turning around to come face to face with Brian, alone.

"Oh, h-hey." Brian stuttered, definitely not expecting to bump into me of all people, just as much as I wasnt expecting to see him alone. I grinned, raising my eyebrows, to let him know that I acknowledged his greeting, yet didn't feel the need to engage in conversation as I made my way past him. As I got a couple of more steps down the hall, I heard his voice once more, which caused me to turn around. "Sal's looking for you, by the way. He's back in your room" He said, motioning his hand in a drinking gesture, implying that Sal was most likely a little worse for wear.

"Okay, thanks." I said, before continuing my way back to my room. I didn't want to, nor did I feel the need to engage in any further conversation than small talk with him right now, so that was all that I would give to him.

Once I had returned to my room, I let myself in to see Sal face down on the bed, sideways and snoring. He definitely had to be drunk, and most likely put to bed by the other guys. And a disastrous job they did at that, too.

I looked at the clock on the wall, noticing that it was only 5pm, so I made my way over to the couch to have a quick nap myself. Only as I woke up, I noticed that my quick nap had turned into a 5 hour one. It was now 10pm, and Sal was no longer on the bed. 

Getting up, I checked my phone, I had three missed calls from Sal, which is when I noticed a note sat on the desk from him also.

'You looked exhausted, gone down to the lobby, I'll come and get you before we leave.' It read, which left me feeling relieved as they mustn't have left yet, considering no one had come in to wake me up.

Only, after I had freshened up and got dressed, it was now half past and there was still no sign of Sal. 

I decided to make my way down into the lobby, noticing that no one from our group was there, only I just so happened to glance over my shoulder and notice Samantha sat at the bar across the room, and thinking that she must have been with everyone else, I decided to make my way over.

"Hey, where is everyone?" I asked, pulling out a chair to sit next to her. 

"I don't know, Q came down whilst I was getting ready, he told me to meet him at the restaurant, but when I came down no one was here." She said, seeming confused. 

"I thought we were supposed to meet in the lobby?" I asked, definitely remembering Bessy saying exactly that, and she wasn't one to get information wrong.

"We were?" She now seemed even more confused.

"Hold up." I said, pulling my phone out, deciding to call Sal to try and discover where at least one of these people were.

"April?" Sal's voice appeared from the other end of the line.

"Where are you?" I asked, hearing a lot of commotion in the background.

"I'm on the way to the club, where are you?"

"I'm at the hotel with Samantha? I thought we were supposed to meet in the lobby?" 

"She's at the hotel with April." I heard Sal tell someone, I'm assuming Q, as his voice came back onto the line. "Why the heck are you at the hotel? I thought you left?" 

"No, I came down to find you and no one was here" I replied.

"Well I went up to the room to get you and nobody was there, when I came back down you weren't there either so I just assumed you left. We must have just passed one another in the elevator." He let out a small laugh.

"Looks that way." I chuckled.

"Call a cab, we'll wait outside until you get here." He said, followed by us both saying our goodbyes.

I called up the cab company soon after, only to be told that there would be at least twenty minute wait until the next available car, considering it was a Friday night, the busiest night of the week. Which only left me with one thought. I was now stranded with Q's annoying new "girlfriend"..


	12. So.. What now?

So it turns out Samantha wasn't as bad as I had made her out to be in my head. It was like the anger I felt for Brian had been turned onto her, and she had no right to feel my wrath when she had no idea why I would even act such a way in the first place. I realized that I couldn't blame her for his actions. It wasn't her. It was him. And despite the annoying laugh, and overly bleached hair, she wasn't all that bad of a person.

After we finally arrived at the club more than an hour later than planned, we spent the next few hours dancing, singing and drinking, and before we knew it we were on our way back to our hotel, looking very much worse for wear than when we left.

Although I wasn't drunk, I felt buzzed enough to put everything that had happened with Brian behind me, and focused on having a good time. We weren't having friendly chats in the corner, but we were being civil with one another, and I guess that's all that mattered.

"Anyone fancy a night cap?" Sal announced, inviting whoever would like to join to our room. Even though I clearly had no say in the matter, I decided to go along with it, we were on vacation after all, now was the time more than ever to let my hair down.

"Yes, drinks back at ours!?" I announced, looking to see Murr and his date extremely engaged in one another.

"We're actually going to head back to our room" Murr said, wrapping his arms around Sarah's shoulders, everyone in that moment understanding exactly why.

"Yeah, I'm gonna head back to mine too. Bess, you comin'?" Joe announced, leading Bessy to take Joe's hand to leave with him.

"You guys have fun though." Bessy smiled as she waved us off, before turning and walking down the hall hand in hand with Joe.

"Guess it's just the awesome foursome!" Samantha declared excitedly. Did she really just say 'awesome foursome'...?

Making our way into our hotel room, Brian came up with the idea of getting into the hot tub at the back of the hotel. A part of me couldn't help but feel like this was planned, but I was in no position to make a comment, or turn down the offer when everyone else had agreed. 

"You guys all head down, I'll be there in a minute, I just gotta talk to the manager real quick." Sal said, as he left the room, nobody questioning his reasons as he always had something to complain about at a hotel.

"We'll meet you down there too, we need to get our bathing suits!" Samantha smiled, as she all but dragged Q out of my room.

I pulled out my case, looking through my swimwear, searching frantically on what bikini I should wear. After finally deciding, I glanced at myself in the mirror, feeling pretty confident at how I looked. I decided to make the most of the moment, pulling my phone out and taking a couple of sexy snaps to send to Sal. After I hit send, I smiled to myself, tossed on a robe and started to walk down to the back of the hotel. As I walked out, I could make out three figures hanging by the pool and tub, upon getting closer, Sal stepped out of the way and that was the moment I was met with Samantha in the skimpiest bikini, accentuating her curves and of course, all around glorious body. Whilst I was standing there wrapped in a robe, looking like the frumpiest marshmallow going. Of course she would look phenomenal. Of course she was extra skinny and completely gorgeous. I would never be able to compete with that. She was perfect.

"C'Mon April, get your kit off" Brian laughed from the pool, as everyone was stripping or already getting in. I almost debated whether I even wanted to remove my robe at this point, I had never felt this self conscious in my life. I watched as Sal popped a bottle, deciding to take this moment to remove my robe and slide in whilst everyone was sidetracked by the pouring of alcohol.

Taking a sip from my glass, I peered opposite me, noticing that Q and Samantha were heatedly making out, completely disregarding the fact that we were all sat merely feet apart.

"You okay?" Sal asked, turning his head to face me.

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, faking a smile. He looked at me as if he didn't believe me, and he wasn't half wrong. I was extremely uncomfortable all around. "I'm fine, I promise." I said, placing a hand onto his thigh.

"What are you two whispering about?" Q chimed in, his hair starting to get damp from the steam, allowing it to stick to his forehead.

"We were talking about how you two need to get a room." I said, not failing to lose eye contact with him. He had no response, he kind of just returned the same look.

"Can we play a game?" Samantha sighed as if she was bored, most likely from not getting any attention for five minutes. 

"What kind of game?" Brian raised an eyebrow, and I could already see where this one was going.

"We totally have to play who's in your mouth." She smiled.

"What?" I choked on the sip of drink I was starting to swallow.

"You've never played it before?!" She squealed.

"No, I haven't, no." But of course she had. "I don't want to play any of these silly little sex games." 

"It's not a sex game!" She giggled.

"The game is literally titled 'whos' in your mouth', how is this in no way going to turn sexual?" 

"Don't be a spoil sport, April." Q smirked at me. I turned to look at Sal, hoping he wouldn't want me to play and would stop this from going ahead, yet all he did was shrug as if to say he agreed with Sam and Q.

"Ugh, fine." I said, placing my glass down onto the side of the tub.   
"So everyone understands the game, right?" Samantha asked one of the dumbest and most obvious questions I had ever heard in my life. "We go around the group in a circle, and the person has to close their eyes, and guess what body part in their mouth belongs to who." Yes, thank you captain obvious. "If you get it wrong, you swig a shot of tequila." She said, pointing to one of the three bottles of various alcoholic beverages on the table next to the tub. "If you get it right, each of the other players has to take a shot."

"Okay, Sam first since it was her idea." Sal laughed, as she closed her eyes. I watched as Q edged closer to her, about to place his pinky into her mouth.

"This is disgusting." I muttered under my breath to Sal, who - by his face - wanted to ignore my comment completely.

"Lighten up, would you? We're on vacation." He replied, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Okay, that was Q, I can always tell when he's in my mouth." She giggled.

"But what part?" Sal quizzed.

"Well there is only one part that small, I'd assume." I felt pleased with my comment, swigging a mouthful of my drink as Sal and Sam laughed at my comment. There was sadly no truth to my comment, but it was always fun to see Q squirm.

"I don't know, his finger?" Sam responded. No one answered. "Oh come on do I really have to guess which one?" 

"Nah, nah you don't, you got it." Q chuckled. "Drink up everyone." He said, taking a sip of tequila then passing it onto Sal, Sal then passing it onto me.

"Alright, April. You're up!" Sam exclaimed. Oh god, please let this be as innocent as possible. Please.

"You gotta stick your tounge out for this one." Sal giggled like a girl, and I could feel the heat of someone standing close to my face. As quickly as I stuck my tongue out, touched the object, I retracted in horror. 

"What the fuck, you guys?!"  I opened my eyes. "That's not right, not someones belly button!" I said, knowing exactly what it was and whose it was, I knew it wasn't Sal because he was talking from beside me, and I knew it wasn't Samantha due to the hairy-ness. Sal immediately erupted into laughter.

"Oh my god, I nearly passed out." Sal tried to regain his breath whilst clutching his chest.

"I'm going back inside, y'all are nasty." I said, grabbing a bottle. "You guys coming?" I decided to ask for once, knowing if I didn't I'd be tell to once again 'lighten up'.

"Yeah, I'm turning all wrinkled and gross." Samantha agreed as she - and her disgustingly glorious body - emerged from the hot tub. 

Upon returning to my room, it was just me, my puffy robe, and Sam in her next to nothing bikini. We sat on the end of my bed together, pouring more drinks into the glasses we had picked off the bedside cabinet. 

"Now that's what I like to see." Q announced loudly at the sight of us as he and Sal entered the room, still damp from the tub. 

"Where's our drinks?" Sal asked as he and Q sat down on the couch opposite us.

"Look like we know?" Sam questioned, then smiling at me. 

"Here, have mine." I said, handing him my glass. 

"You sure?" 

"Yeah." I smiled, grabbing the bottle instead, taking a sip. Only as I tied the lid, Samantha reached over to grab the bottle and was on the verge of falling of the bed. I reached my hands out to grab her, accidentally groping her chest in the process, but in my defense it was almost inevitable regarding the size of them. We immediately both start laughing at the situation.

"You guys wanna do that again?" Q asked.

"You're such a perv." I replied.

"Maybe." He laughed.

"I'm not gonna lie, it was a nice handful. Not all of us are that blessed, that's for sure." I said, looking in my robe down at my chest.

"Oh I'm not blessed, they're fake." She asserted.

"No way?" I replied, a little shocked. Sure, I noticed that they were bigger than average, but realistic is one thing that they did look, and felt from the two seconds that I fondled.

"Yeah! Feel." She said, grabbing my hand and placing it onto her chest. "I got the implants under my muscle to make them look more real, but you can feel that they're not. I still love them, though." With great reason, I was straight and I could tell that they were phenomenal.

"Fake or not, they're still way better than mine."

"Let me see." She said, opening my robe and looking at my chest. "They're not that small! They're a cute size!" 

"They're a good hand full at least, so I guess I should be okay with that." 

"Yes, you should!" She agreed, before we both looked up, noticing that the boys were extremely quiet. Usually you could never shut one up, let alone them both at the same time.

"Oh no, don't let us distract you." Q raised his eyebrows, as Sal smitrked next to him.

"Girl on girl is really that appealing to guys, huh?" I questioned, always wondering why it was that way for guys and not the same with girls watching guys.

"It's always been an avowed thing." Sal smirked. 

"Whatever that means. Can you go get more drink please boys?" Samantha asked.

"What drinks do you w.."

"Woah woah woah, wait - what's in it for us?" Q interrupted Sal.

"More drink?" Sam replied.

"That's it?" 

Sam looked at Q, then at me, then back at Q.

"Okay, if you get us more drink, April and I will make out." 

"What?" I asked, completely not a part of this conversation to start of with.

"Deal." Q said, standing up and heading to the door. I once again looked at Sal for comfort, who then looked at Q before getting up to join him. Unbelievable. 

Within minutes they returned, bottles and this time extra glasses in hand. Then they both sat back down on the couch in front of us, as if awaiting a Broadway show to start.

"Really?" I looked at them, raising an eyebrow, the anticipation evident on their faces. I looked back at Sam, who was now smiling. She lightly placed her hands onto my cheeks, before leaning in and placing her lips onto mine. Biting at my bottom lip, I allowed her tongue entrance as it danced along mine. I moaned as she started planting kisses down my neck, across my chest, down my stomach and to the top of my bikini bottoms. I rested on my elbows, my robe falling from my shoulders slightly as I watched the girl between my legs. I knew what was gonna happen, but I didn't stop myself from what was about to happen. Seconds later I felt the strings of bikini being untied and a mouth attach itself to my core. Moaning slightly, remembering that the boys were sat inches away, I decided to go along with it. Besides, who was this hurting?

After a few minutes, I was returning the same gesture to her. This time looking up, catching the four eyes watching our every move with my own. We had them right where we wanted them, at this moment in time we could make them do just about anything. 

We returned to kissing, before we pulled apart, Samantha looking at Q the same way I was looking at Sal. We were both turned on, as were they, so why not have a little fun with that knowledge. Samantha untied her own bikini top, before repeating the same on mine. She then stepped of the bed, walked over to Q and knelt between his legs. She unbuckled his belt, before pulling his pants down, along with his boxers, revealing his more than hard member. I realized that I had been watching a little too long and my eyes tipped up to meet Brian's. He evidently had noticed my inspection of him and gave me the most devilish grin I'd ever seen from him. I smiled back. Then my eyes moved to Sal. He was staring intently, but not at my eyes, at my breasts. He was shifting on the couch, trying to adjust his pants.

"April, why don't you go sit on your boy, Sally's lap," Samantha suggested while ushering me forward with her hands.

"Dude," Q sounded slightly annoyed with him, "get settled on the couch so April can sit with you."

Looking a little shell shocked, Sal sat back into the corner of the couch, bending one knee up, while leaving the other foot on the ground. "C'mere, babe." He smiled at me, and held out his arms.  
I smiled a little. In all honesty, it was an odd sight, Sal sitting slightly sideways on the couch, Q to his side, half naked, raging hard on, with Sam now sitting on his lap. What could I do when everyone seemed completely comfortable with what was happening? Despite Sal's usual awkward self.

I settled myself, my back to his front, and his arms went around my waist. I could feel his rock hard cock against my ass. Instinct had me pulling my legs up, knees bent and arms wrapped around them, in an attempt to cover my nakedness.

"Nice try." Sam said, leaning off Q's lap slightly, attempting to make out with me once more. Knowing that I had my back to Sal, and mid make out with Sam, I opened my eyes, and a small voice in my brain told me that Sal should be protesting this...and that I should want him to. But at the same time I could not take my eyes of Q's cock. It may have been selfish, but I hadn't even looked at Sal once. He apparently also noticed my perusal, as he fisted his cock and gave it a couple small strokes. I looked up at him in shock and he winked at me.

Pulling away from the kiss, I glanced over my shoulder. Sal had undone his pants, he still was rock hard, his dick pointing at the ceiling. When my eyes drifted back up to his, he just widened his smile and winked. I giggled. I turned around and perched myself so I was straddling him more comfortably. I noticed that he was still fully clothed, although his pants and underwear slightly pulled down. His nerves were evident in the look he gave me, but also in the way that his hands began fidgeting. Lucky for me, this fidgeting involved stroking back and forth, and quickly lead to both hands roaming all around my breasts.

"I think that April has shown that she may be more open to what you were saying than you initially thought." I heard Q laughing through his words to Sam. I glanced over at him, his face clenched through pleasure as Sam was once again between his thighs.I wasn't sure what to make of that, but seeing that he was clearly the one in charge, it seemed somewhat fitting.

I slowly let Sal enter me, moaning as he filled me up. I began grinding my hips, Sal resting his head back as the sensations engulfed his body. More moans escaped my lips, which got the attention from the other two back onto us.

"What is going on over there?" Sam giggled, crawling towards us. She watched for a moment or two, before she asked the question that made me freeze. "Can I try?" She asked. I had to mentally rewind the words that had just excited her mouth. "I'm sure Brian won't mind." She looked over her shoulder and smiled. I looked at Sal, who's eyes had widened in a way of warning, not pleasure. Which is when those few words that he had spoken to me earlier returned to my mind.

"Lighten up, would you. We're on vacation." I winked before backing away, watching as Sam leaned in to kiss my boyfriend. Exactly what was going on tonight, I couldn't answer. Maybe it was the leftover guilt of knowing that I had did it to him letting me allow this to happen so easily, but there had been too much alcohol involved to back out at this point. Besides, Sal seemed less than worried seconds later when he was shoving his tongue down her throat.

I heard the moans and groans filling the room from the side of the couch I had just left, and I found myself sitting next to Q. 

"So.. What now?" Brian asked, smirking down at me.


	13. Alone

Waking up the next afternoon, I felt the mild beginnings of a hangover. Turning over, I noticed Sal laying beside me. He wasn't there when I had gone to sleep, in fact I'm almost certain that he didn't even notice me leaving. I was drunk, but he had consumed quite the fair amount of drinks more, and the fact that he wasn't in the hotel room once I had returned a few hours later suggested he went out for more drinks. As he laid there so peacefully, I wondered how last night turned out the way it did. Sure, things happen on vacation that usually wouldn't happen when you're at home, but letting the guy that you're supposed to be in love with sleep with another girl? That was giving me a hard time trying to understand why I would allow that to happen.

Walking into the adjoining bathroom, I splashed some water on my face, tidied up my appearance and decided to go downstairs and order some coffee, and a strong cup at that. 

Once ordered, I tucked myself away at a small table in the corner, in hopes no one from the group would be turning up at any point. But of course, the one person that I always wanted to avoid would be the one to find me.

"You didn't order me anything?" Q pulled the chair out, scraping it along the floor in the process. All I could do was look up and scowl at him. "Jesus, it was a joke, calm down." He continued, holding his hands up.

"You know, telling a woman to calm down is the best way to receive the opposite reaction." I replied.

"Yeah, no kidding." He chuckled. "So.." 

"So what?" I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he could possibly want.

"Why'd you run away last night?" 

"I didn't run away." I exhaled loudly, letting him know that I wasn't in the mood for these types of questions. But Q being Q, saw the warning but opted to ignore.

"I mean.. It looked.." 

"It looked like nothing, okay? We were drunk, I'm sorry I didn't fuck you, is that what you wanted to hear?" I raised my voice unknowingly, noticing a few people turn their heads. "I didn't run away, alright? I just know better." I now lowered my tone.

"And what is better, April?

"Knowing not to get involved with you." I retorted, before getting up and heading straight back to my room.

"Where'd you go?" Asked Sal as I entered the room, hair messy and voice crackled, evidence that he had only woken up mere seconds ago. 

"I went to get some coffee." I sat down on the end of the bed. 

"Must be some crappy coffee." He climbed to sit next to me.

"What?" I replied, shaking myself out of the mood the Q had sent me into." 

"You seem on edge." 

"I do? I mean, yeah, I just have a bad hangover is all." I forced a smile. 

"So it has nothing to do with last night?" He pulled a face as if he was waiting for me to tell him that that was exactly what was wrong. Which is why I decided to go for the opposite.

"What about last night?" I pretended to be completely calm. "We were drunk, there's nothing more to say. We were all there, not like anything happened behind the others back." 

"And you really are okay with that?" 

"What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico, right?" 

"Actually, I think that's Vegas.." He replied.

"But when you're away with this group of people, the rule applies to pretty much anywhere." I sighed.

"We were gonna go to an amusement park today, you up for that?" He asked.

"Who's going?" 

"I assume everyone." 

"I don't know.. I don't know if I can face everyone and rides combined with this hangover." I rubbed my head. 

"Then how about we make the most of being alone and stay in?" He kissed my shoulder.

"No, you go. I don't want you to miss out. Besides, I won't be much fun anyways." He looked up at me, I could tell that he wanted to go but he was also wanting to stay out of guilt because he didn't want me to be alone. "I'm serious, get ready and go! I'll be fine, I'll most likely sleep until you get back anyway." He kissed my shoulder once more before getting up.

"You at least wanna join me in the shower?" 

"I already showered." I lied, but he didn't have to know. Looking somewhat disappointed, he turned around and shut the door. Once I heard the shower turn on, I climbed beneath the covers and before I knew it I was drifting off to sleep.

Once I had awoken, the sun had set and there was still no sign of anyone being back yet. Sal had left a note telling me that he had left, and that they should be back before it was late, so considering that it was now dark outside tells me that they were having a good time, so I wasn't about to bombard him with text messages.

Throwing on a light sweater, I decided to go for a walk outside around the hotel. It was near the sea front, and the garden surrounding was covered in little tea lights. It almost looked like Christmas in the middle of summer.

I noticed an empty seated area surrounding a fire, and decided to sit down and take in the view around me. It was beautiful. I almost wanted someone to share it with, but after the events of last night I could barely face Sal to talk, let alone have romantic moments with him.

"I've been looking for all you all night." A voice along with footsteps began to get closer, both of which belonged to Q. 

"You guys are finally back then?" I replied, waiting for Sal to come around the corner at any second.

"They're at a bar, Murray texted me." He replied sitting down.

"Not like you to turn down a bar." 

"Well it's at the park, so why drive all the way out there when you have beer right here." He said, raising the bottle in his hand slightly. 

"Oh, you didn't go with them?" I asked the most obvious question.

"Nope." He took a swig out of his bottle, before he fumbled with the paper lable.

"You know, pulling the lable off a bottle is a sign of sexual frustration." I tried to lighten the mood, because for some reason it seemed like there was a slight darkness hanging over his head tonight. He chuckled lightly before the picking of the bottle stopped.

"Yeah well.. my girlfriend was busy fucking my best friend last night." ....aaand there goes the mood dropping instantly further. An awkward silence filled for what seemed longer than the few seconds that had actually passed before Q decided to end it. "Sal texted me, told me you weren't going." 

"Yeah?" I replied, not knowing what to reply because I had no idea why he was telling me what he was saying. 

"I didn't want to go if you weren't going." 

"Brian.." 

"What?" He replied as if he had done nothing wrong, and I guess he technically didn't, leaving me with no answer to tell him. That of which he noticed. "I miss hanging out with you, sue me." 

"I guess I'd be lying if I didn't reciprocate the sentence." I sighed. 

"Who knows, maybe we'll swap partners again some time and we'll actually have alone time. But you know, as friends." 

"Please stop reminding me of last night." I groaned. "Especially joking about it, it's not funny. And besides, we are alone." 

"Sorry." He looked back down at his bottle, and all I could do was watch him as I tried to figure him out once again. Something I could never do when he always joked to cover up how he really felt. As I was about to ask what was wrong, he started talking first. 

"She's done it before." He said, sounding unsure as to whether or not he should have actually said it.

"Done what?" 

"Cheated. Thinks I don't know, but I do." 

"Oh?" Was all I could manage to say. Instead I slid closer to him to show comfort. 

"It's fine though. After the first time I gave up caring."

"So it's happened more than once?" 

"A couple times. It doesn't matter." 

"Of course it matters." I said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"That's the thing, I don't know if it does.. I never thought that I'd feel something for someone again. I thought maybe I did with her. But after she did it the first time.. I realized I didn't. I didn't feel angry. I didn't feel hurt. Not like how I feel when I see you with Sal." I immediately removed my hand, thinking that I heard him wrong.

"What?" I questioned more out of shock, but continued looking him in the eye.

"You heard, April." He responded, sounding defeated almost as he looked back down at the bottle in his grasp. 

"But.. If you felt that way, then why are you still with her?" 

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I guess it's pretty evident that you had no intention of leaving Sal." 

"So you decide to stay in a relationship that is clearly making you miserable?" He didn't answer my question, instead he looked up and past me as if he had seen something, or someone, in this matter.

"Better than being alone." He replied as he got up, walking over to Samantha who had finally returned with the rest of the group. She waved at me from afar, giving me a cheesy smile, not knowing the whole time that her boyfriend had poured everything he knew about her cheating onto me, and more importantly, his stronger feelings about me.


	14. Sticky Situation

"I'll meet you down at the pool." Sal yelled as he left the hotel room. Everyone had decided to have a lazy day chilling by the pool after the last few days being so hectic with activities. It was finally now time for a little sun, sea, and relaxation. Quite the opposite of last nights conversation with Brian.

Throwing on my one piece, I wrapped a sarong around my waist, grabbed my pool bag and made my way down to the pool. I saw Q and Sam sitting next to one another, Sam draping her arms all over his shoulders. It made me angry to see. I almost felt hypocritical, but at least I admitted to my actions. Although.. I was still technically lying. Maybe I was being hypocritical. I had to hide how I felt towards her the best I could, after all.. Maybe I do know how easy it can be to cheat. But surely the situation between Q and I was different? She did it with multiple men. Q and I... We were more than that. We developed feelings. Feelings of which I refused to let myself have anymore. 

"Good morning sunshine." Samantha chrirped as I sat myself down on a sun lounger. 

"Morning." I forced a smile back, catching a glimpse of Q looking at me also. 

"I'm so bummed that you guys didn't come yesterday. We had such a great time, didn't we Sal?" Not the first time from my experience.

"Yeah, it was good." Sal replied, as Murr walked over.

"We're going down to the beach, you guys coming?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'll come." Sal replied. Then went on to asking Sam and myself, but not Q. 

"Sure, come on, Q!" Sam stood up, trying to pull Brian up by the arm.

"There's no chance." Sal laughed as he watched. "He hates the beach." 

"It's a good job that we're not on vacation at the beach then." I said sarcastically, receiving a chuckle from the man himself. "You guys go, I'll keep Mr negative company." I smiled as I laid down on my sun lounger. 

"Alright, but I'll meet you back here at 1 and take you out for lunch." He told, instead of asking.

"See you at one, baby." He gave me a quick peck as he and Sam followed after Murr.

"You didn't have to stay, you know." Q said calmly.

"I wanted to." I replied, honestly at that too. "You wanted to hang out more, so did I. So here we are." 

"I just don't want this to be a pity hang. That's all." 

"Pff.. As if I'd pity you. You're too annoying to pity." I joked, knowing that he could always take it. He hated being smothered by people that cared, so I had to hide the fact that I was feeling slightly sorry for him. 

Silence filled the poolside, I was now finally feeling relaxed for the first time since arriving here. That was until I heard Q's voice piped up from beside me.

"You're turning pretty red." He laughed, and I looked up at him through squinted eyes. "Here, move." He began sitting down on my lounger, practically forcing me to move over. He grabbed the bottle of sun screen and squirted it generously into the palm of his hands before making a gesture for me to turn my back to him. Any other time I would have objected, but I was beginning to feel the burning sensation on my skin. He slathered the cream onto the back of my neck, the cold feeling sending shivers down my spine, causing me to shudder and develop goosebumps. I heard Q giggle softly from behind me. I heard him apply some more to his hand, before I felt his fingers tug at my swimsuit strap. 

"What're you doing?" I pulled away slightly, turning my head to face him. 

"I'm putting it on your shoulders, what do you think I'm doing?" He said, as if it was completely ridiculous for him to even be attempting to breach the friendly touch zone. Yet I knew him far too well to just give him the benefit of the doubt. But he had a point, we were in a public place. I shuffled back as he continued, his hands moving slowly over my skin in soft circular motions. He reached for my other strap and pulled it down also before applying to that shoulder. I had now pulled my arms through and was holding my swimsuit up by my arms. "Don't be so shy. Ain't nothing I've not seen before." He said, and I could tell there was a joking tone to his voice, but I still didn't appreciate the flirting. 

"Yeah, but doesn't mean you get to ever again." I smirked smugly as he had finished applying sunscreen and I was now facing him.

"So no more pictures, then?" 

"What?" I replied, clearly confused.

"Yeah, I figured that they weren't meant for me." 

"What are you talking about?" I furrowed my brows.

"The other night, in your bikini. Pretty raunchy pics" he smirked that cocky smile. I face palmed then and there. How could I have been stupid enough to send them to Brian of all people. Had he really been on my mind that much since we had been here? It felt like there wasn't a second that I wasn't worrying about him, or mad at him, or wanting to hang out with him. The different level of emotions from hatred to missing him were all too confusing. 

"Did you delete the pictures?" I asked.

"Do you want me to delete the pictures?" Just then I could see the guys in the distance. Sal clearly having a great time with Samantha. Never hiding the fact that he enjoyed the secret glimpse at her that he thought I could never see. And that was enough to let me let my guard down slightly. I didn't have to be so cold. What harm was flirting? 

"Do whatever you want with them." I replied, as cooly as I could. Receiving a more than satisfied grin from Q himself. 

"I probably wouldn't have deleted them even if you asked me to." He winked, receiving a smile from me.

"And on that note, I'm going to go and change my swimsuit. I don't want ridiculous tan lines." I grabbed my bag, knowing that I couldn't sit there continuing with the flirting all day. But for some reason, as soon as I got into the changing room, all I could think about was getting a reaction from Q when he was to see me walk out in my bikini. I wanted him to look at me. I wanted him to remember that I was much better of a catch than Samantha was. As I tied the string to my bikini top, I made sure I tied it a little tighter than usual, adding extra volume to my cleavage. I looked myself up and down in the floor length mirror, feeling rather pleased with myself. "Still got it." I whispered to myself, feeling confident for the first time since being here after always feeling second best next to Sam wearing next to nothing. I was starting to wonder if that was where the jealousy stopped. Because I was starting to believe that it wasn't. 

Once I made it back to the poolside, I noticed that Q was no longer there, with all of his belongings gone too. So much for getting a reaction out of him. 

My phone went off in my bag, so I reached in to get it, checking my texts to see that it was from Q.

'People noticed me at the pool. Didn't want to be bothered. Back upstairs. Sorry for ditching.' It read. 

Hmm.. Perhaps I could still gain a reaction after all. Shoving my phone back into my bag, I made my way back into the hotel and instead of stopping at my floor, I continued up one level higher to Brian's. I know I shouldn't have, but there was that one voice inside my head that was always telling me to go to him. And that voice had definitely been awakened since Q had told me that he still had feelings for me.

"It took you long enough to come up here." He announced, opening the door after I had knocked gently.

"And you just happened to know that I would come and see you?" 

"Well, you're here, aren't you?" His voice thick with flirtation once more.

"Anyone in here?" I asked, as he stepped aside to let me in.

"Would we be alone if there were?" He asked.

"Maybe." 

"Well I hope not." He purred.

"Why?" I turned to face him as he shut the door quietly, not hiding the fact that his eyes kept wondering to my chest.   
He slowly stepped closer towards me, our bodies now dangerously close, before I felt his hands reach around my waist. I jumped when I felt his hands but tried to play it cool. I stared into those deep brown eyes for a moment as I started to realize what was happening. He was untying the back of my bikini top, pulling the strings ever so slowly before it fell from my shoulders entirely. I was now topless, and as his hands slipped down to the small of my back, I didn't feel like he felt the need for my underwear to be there either. 

As soon as it clicked in my brain that I was about to be totally nude, I couldn't hold myself back anymore. My lips finally met his, and his tongue snaked into my mouth. I was stunned for a second, not believing this was actually happening. His hand sliding under the waistband of my bottoms brought me back from my shock and I kissed him back, sliding my hands around his neck, before letting one hand travel to his shoulders, pushing the robe to slowly slide off his back. Within seconds both his shorts and my underwear were around our ankles and my hands were sliding up his stomach and chest, snaking them around his neck as I went. I felt the warmth of his chest against my breasts as he pulled me closer during the kiss, his pelvis met mine and I could feel his awakening cock slide up between my legs. 

I moaned into the kiss as I ground my pelvis against his manhood. He slid a hand up my side to cup one of my breasts. My arms locked around his neck tightly and I lifted one of my legs up around his side and I locked it around him.

He grasped his my free hand around my thigh, and it was pretty clear where this was now going. His now-hard member found my core, and at that angle all I could do was moan as he rubbed his shaft up and down my opening, but I wasn't tall enough to get over the head and impale myself.

Growing frustrated, I backed away from the kiss "Fuck me, dammit." I growled, giving him a desperate, impatient look. 

He grabbed my leg that was still on the ground and pulled me up to let his cock pass underneath me. He held me up so that I could feel the head against my soaking core, but careful to not let me sink down onto it just yet. 

I attacked his lips again, letting out an excited gasp as he let the tip slip in ever so slightly before pulling me back up off of it. I groaned, digging my nails into his shoulders, trying to force him to drop me onto his member.

He was enjoying the tease, I however, was beginning to feel inpatient. I pulled away again, giving him a fiery stare, and was about to say something when he let my hips drop.

The look of absolute ecstasy on his face was priceless as he buried himself deep inside me. After a moment I slowly pulled myself back up by his shoulders, inching my way back up off of his cock. As the head started to pull out, I caught him off guard as I let myself drop again, slamming into me this time. I looked at him, eyes darkening with pleasure, a devilish grin crossed my face as I raised back up and slammed back down once again. 

Ready for me this time, he thrusted his hips forward to catch me. The collision was an explosion of pleasure and I almost screamed whilst he grabbed my ass cheeks and ground his pelvis against mine again. He locked his lips to mine again, and we began to find a rhythm.

I was moaning into his mouth with each stroke and I felt my walls tighten more and more. My arms were burning, but the pleasure of him being inside me was enough to help me ignore it. I wasn't sure how much more he could handle when I finally broke the kiss.

"Fuck me hard," I begged. "I'm so close"

He obliged, pinning me against the wall near us. Now with some leverage and me unable to get away, he began sawing in and out of me.

His balls slapped against my ass with each thrust and I let go of his neck with one arm and dove my hand between us. I fingered my clit as he slammed his cock deep into me again and again. I felt the familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach, before my walls clamped down and I felt a flood of juices cover his shaft and I let out a slew of curse words as an orgasm washed over me, the contracting of myself around him clearly too much pleasure for Q to contain.

"I'm gonna cum," he yelled, trying to figure out where he wanted to let loose. In one quick motion I pulled myself up off of his cock. He let go of my legs and allowed me to find the floor. I could see the urgency in his face, as he tried to hold back while I slid myself down his body. 

I encircled a hand around his cock, and was starting to open my mouth when he couldn't hold it back anymore. Obscenities left his mouth as his first shot sprayed my chin and lips. He stopped trying to fight it and let the torrent come. The second shot fired across my right cheek and up towards my hair. The third hit smack in the middle of my face, covering my upper lip and nose. He shuddered as the last bit of cum dribbled out.

"Looks like I'm gonna need another shower." I laughed, as I drug my finger across my cheek, trying to clean myself up slightly.

"I'm so sorry." He finally was able to speak after such an intense high, although his apology would have seemed more sincere if he wasn't laughing so much. "I expected you to lose it, but you surprised me." He chuckled once more, and so did I. The ending of this situation was definitely funny, but also definitely not planned. He handed me some napkins that he had from his room service order, and reached for his shorts, pulling them up and then retrieving my bikini top of the floor, that look like a ravelled piece of string at this point. "I don't even know where to start with this." He held it up as if he was going to try and put it back on me, but giving up almost instantly at the complicated look of it. 

After cleaning myself up, I got changed back into my swimwear, before a rush of panic washed over me.

"Wait. What time is it?" I asked, not able to hide my panic. 

Q lifted his phone, before reading the time aloud.

"It's 1:15." He replied, clearly forgetting that Sal said he would come and find me at 1 to take me to lunch. "Oh shit, weren't you supposed to meet Sal?" He said, and for a split second I couldn't help but feel like he had set this all out on purpose.

"I need to shower! I need to wash my hair!" I exclaimed, having sadly had this situation happen to my hair before.

"Relax, it doesn't look bad.. Considering." He replied like it was a joke. 

"But can you tell what happened?" 

"Can I tell that you had cum in your hair? No." He answered, as he sat down on his bed. I shook my head, looking into his mirror, before grabbing my bag off his floor and making my way to his door so I could head back to my room to get changed. "I'll see you later, then?" He said as I opened the door. I didn't have the time to respond, and exited the room without even a hint of a goodbye.


	15. Stress.

"Hey, where are you?" I asked Sal on the phone as I made my way down the hotel corridor.

"I was just about to come up to the room to find you" Sal replied, completely unaware of the goings on that had just occurred. 

"Okay, I'll see you in a minute then." I said, before hanging up and practically sprinting to the elevator.

Once I had gotten to my floor, I had luckily made it into the room before Sal did. I went straight to my suitcase, wanting to at least change into some decent clothes, and not the ones that his best friend had just torn off me twenty minutes prior.

I heard the door open, followed by Sal's less than chirpy precense.

"Hey, beautiful." he sighed.

"What's wrong?" I asked, turning to face him as I pulled on my shirt.

"Nothing, I'm just exhausted." he collapsed onto the bed, spreading his arms and legs across the king sized mattress. "Do you mind if I take a hall pass on lunch?"

"Fine. But you better order me something tasty of the room service menu whilst I shower. I'm starving." 

"You're showering?" Sal questioned like it was the weirdest thing in the world.

"Well, that's kinda what I said. Why? Is that an issue?" I raised an eyebrow.

"No, not at all. It's just weird. That's all." Okay. Completely normal.

"Weird how?" 

"You showered, what, two hours ago? Before we went down." 

He was really beginning to annoy me. He was a very specific person, so whenever you would do something out of the ordinary or at a different time of day than when you would usually do it, he would always be the one to notice, and always be the one to point it out.

"I've been out in the sun all morning, and now I'm covered in sunscreen, let me apologize for wanting to freshen up a little bit." I replied with intense sarcasm.

"Ap, I was just saying. You don't have to get pissy with me." he responded like I was just being irrational. I was not irrational, I was irritated. Huge difference. Making my way into the bathroom, I shut the door a little more aggressively than normal, not feeling the little fights that we would be getting ourselves into here and there. I switched the shower on, before removing my clothes and stepping in, hoping to wash away my bad mood as well as my more than likely poor choices. 

Once dried and clothed, I wrapped the warm, fluffly robe around my body and trundled back over to the bed, where a tray of food and drinks now lay beside Sal. My favorite snacks at that.

"I'm sorry for acting like a dick." Sal said, before sliding a plate closer to me as I sat crossed leg next to him on the bed.

"I'm glad you're aware." I replied, somewhat joking yet somewhat telling the truth. "You really gotta tone down the OCD, though. The 'Mr specific and his attention to detail show' really grinds my gears sometimes." 

"I'm sorry." he chuckled softly. "I guess I just miss you." he said out of nowhere. 

"Miss me? We spend every day together." I found myself forcing a smile when I noticed a less than happy look on his face.

"Not really, though. Sometimes it feels like you find every opportunity to not be with me. I get it, Q is way more fun than what I am, but I don't want to be hanging out with Sam every day, just as much as she probably doesn't want to be hanging out with me any day." 

"I doubt that she has a problem with that." I muttered under my breath.

"That's what this is about, isn't it? The other night? I knew you wouldn't be okay with it, that's why I tried to stop it from happening." 

"Yeah, because you really put up such a fight." 

"Are you kidding me? You fucked her first!" he began to raise his voice.

"That was different!" I yelled back.

"It's always different with you, April. Because in your head you do no wrong. That's why it was so easy for you to cheat." within those words, I turned my head to look him in the eyes almost instantly.

"What did you say?" I asked, trying not to laugh at the comment that he had just made out of frustration.

"Was it him, that you were fucking, Q? Is that where you two were just now? Because you sure as hell disappeared from the pool relatively quickly." 

"I was in our room, I was here when you got back, you moron!" I threw the sandwich that I was eating back onto the plate, before grabbing my phone and leaving Sal alone in our room.

I wrote out a text to Q, asking him to meet me on the beach a little further from our hotel and away from prying eyes, and twenty minutes later I was still sat alone, with not even a hint of a response from Q. I laid myself down on the warm sand, thinking to myself that maybe this is exactly what I had deserved. I couldn't have my cake and eat it too, but for some reason it was always so hard to deny another slice.

"Sorry that I took so long." Q's voice appeared from above me when I was just finding myself about to doze off beneath the warmth of the sunlight. 

"I was starting to think you weren't coming." I propped myself up on my elbows.

"Yeah well, it's not like I have a girlfriend to spend time with anymore." He sat down next to me.

"What?" I questioned him, sometimes not being able to tell the truth from his sarcasm.

"We broke up." he said, completely emotionless, but from what he had told me about her, I could understand why he wasn't upset.

"Oh?" 

"Well I dumped her. It wasn't exactly a joint choice." 

"And you're okay with that?" 

He turned his head over his shoulder, looking at me for a few seconds before a small smile crept onto his face.

"I really think I am." he said, which made me relieved. Although I wasn't single, I still didn't want him to ever favor someone like her over me.

"That's good then." I returned the smile, unsure of what to say next. 

"So why'd you want me to come out here? Because an hour ago you couldn't get away from me quick enough."

"I know, I'm sorry." I paused. Not really sure why I asked him to come out here. "I guess I just needed y..someone." 

"Let me guess, Sal?" he asked, knowing that was the only logical answer considering I was supposed to be at lunch with him right now.

"How'd you guess?" he chuckled slightly, yet seemed uncomfortable. He always was when I spoke about my relationship with Sal in any way. "He asked me if we had sex just now." Q's eyes widened instantly.

"What? What'd you tell him?" 

"Well.. I called him a moron and stormed out. Annnnnd now I'm here." 

"And your first instinct was to call me, to see you, knowing that he was suspicious? What happens if he sees us together?" 

"Relax, I don't think he truly believes that. He was just mad that I was hanging out with you more than him." 

"So what now?" he asked, and I shrugged.

"I don't know. Nothing, I guess?" 

"Nothing as in no hanging out, or nothing as in no sleeping together?" 

"I had no problem with not sleeping with you, trust me." I said, and Q immediately started to laugh, shaking his head. "What?" 

"You kissed me first." 

"You got me alone in your room and pulled my bikini top off." 

"And you still initiated the kiss. So we both initiated something."

"You're annoying." I scoffed.

"And I'm right. You can't help yourself just as much as I can't. You just try to tell yourself that you don't so you feel less of a shitty person." 

"You think I'm a shitty person?"  

"No, I think what we're both doing is shitty. But I've learned to accept that, and you should too." He replied as he stood up.

"Where are you going?" 

"To get a drink. You comin'?" He stopped and turned around to wait for my response. 

"Yeah, I'm coming." I said as I caught up with him. "I need it after today."

 

Once our cab pulled up at the bar, Q stepped out, holding his hand out to help me out of the car, shutting the door behind me before slowly beginning to walk up to the entrance.

"I don't even have shoes on." I announced. Completely forgetting that I hadn't grabbed my shoes from the hotel, along with the robe that I had removed in the car. Q walked back over to me, before bending down slightly before me to give me a piggy back. "Really?" I questioned, laughing.

"Yeah, hop on. C'mon." he said, like it was completely normal. I obliged, jumping onto his back as his strong grip wrapped around my thighs. 

"What a way to arrive at a place, huh?" Bessy's voice popped up over my shoulder as Q and I sat down on the bar stools. My heart dropped into my stomach, not thinking that anyone would be here. Just how innocent did a piggy back look?

"Yeah, I forgot my shoes, we came from the beach. Sal went home." I lied, but this story could not get back to Sal, especially since our last conversation. 

"Well, I'll leave you to it. We were just out for a quick meal, and I spotted you two coming on from the other side of the room." She smiled. "So I thought I'd come over and say hi."

"We?" I asked, before noticing what I was even asking. It just so happened to be the dumbest question in the world. I guess I forgot how on edge life was when involved with Q in such a way.

"Yes, me and Joe. Who else would I have been with?" She laughed.

"Oh yeah, sorry, long night." I forced a giggle back. 

"Well have a nice afternoon. We'll see you guys later for dinner." she said as she made her way back to her table. 

"Fuck, I forgot that we had dinner tonight." 

"Yeah, I was thinking about taking a pass on that. Especially since Sal got suspicious." 

"No, you're not bailing on me. And he's not suspicious." 

"How do you know that for sure?" 

"I just do. Okay?" I said as I ordered some shots.

"Guess we'll find out when we see him at dinner." 

"Trust me, things will be fine." I replied, wondering if I was trying to comfort him or if I was trying to comfort myself.


	16. Hungover

The sunlight piercing through a gap in the curtain was enough to awake me from my slumber. I had no memory of last night, no memory of getting into bed, and even after sitting up, turns out I didn't even recognize the room.

I heard grouching coming from beside me, which is when I turned and noticed Q laid beside me underneath the blanket. The mess that he looked even when asleep was enough to tell me that last night must have ended pretty messily. I was just glad that all of my clothes were in tact, considering nights with Q would rarely end in such a way.

I fished my phone out of my pocket, reading that I had 17 texts, and 4 voice mails. Which is when I began to panic. I couldn't remember anything, but chances are Q and I didn't make it to the group dinner last night? So much for not trying to cause suspicion.

"Go on then. How mad is he?" Q's husky morning voice appeared. I didn't even know that he was even awake at this point. 

"Too scared to even check." I placed my phone onto the nightstand, before scurrying back under the sheets. "What even happened last night?" I asked, rubbing my head.

"You don't remember?" he chuckled.

"No, I seriously don't. Where even are we?"

"Hotel above the bar we ended up at in the early hours." 

"So we didn't go to dinner?" 

"We did not. You were too bombed." he laughed once more. "I can't remember much. But I do remember that."  

"I should probably make myself look a little presentable and get back." I sighed, before rolling out of bed and pacing into the bathroom. I left the door open as I tried to tidy up my bed hair the best that I could. Which is when something in the reflection in the mirror caught my eye behind me. There laying on the floor behind me was the underwear that I had been wearing. 

"Oh and I definitely remember bending you over that sink once we got into the room." Q now appeared in the bathroom doorway. Maybe now was the time to realize that this would just be inevitable, whether I was sober or not.

"We really need to get back. How are we going to even talk our way outta this one? Bessy saw us together!" 

"Relax. I got this." Q replied, extremely calm.

"Have you, though?" I quizzed, my composure the complete opposite. Q nodded before flattening a piece of my hair that was sticking up.

"You ready to go?"

"Sure." I sighed, almost fighting even going with him. But what was the point, we had already been seen together. Sal would know at this point. Arriving separately would probably seem a lot more sketchy. 

Once arriving at our hotel, I scurried upstairs, hiding the fact that I still didn't have footwear to the multiple guests around the hotel. All I wanted to do was get into my room, have a nice shower, and make sure that Sal wasn't ready to murder me upon arrival. That's if he even was even still here. 

When I got to my room, I noticed I didn't have my key card, so I knocked gently in hope that Sal was on the other side to let me in. Much to my dismay when nobody answered. I knew that myself - and my bare feet - would have to treck down to reception to retrieve a new room key. Only as I made it half way to the lobby, I heard Murr's voice yell my name from behind me.

"You coming down for lunch?" he asked as he caught up with me.

"Who's going?" I asked.

"Everyone, I guess. I'm on my way there now."

"I don't know, I have to shower... and I need shoes.." I looked at my feet, then back at him.

"That good of a night?" he laughed.

"I'll answer that if I can ever remember." I sighed. "I'm going to get a room key, and then shower, I'll meet you all down there in 20?" 

"Sounds good. I'll see you then." I waved him off as he walked down an opposite corridor. 

Once I had gotten my room card, I headed back to my room, cleaning my hungover body up as much as I could. No matter how clean I was, I still looked completely wrecked. My eye bags were telling no lies. 

Suddenly a gentle tapping at my door was brought to my attention, so I got up, opening it to be greeted by Q's face. Somehow looking a lot perkier than me, strange considering he usually had a face of thunder on him, even when he seemed to be happy. 

"What's up? You comin' down to eat?" Q asked.

"I was actually just about to head down there now, everyone's already down there." 

"Oh they are? Awesome." He replied as he waited in the door way as I grabbed a light sweater.

As we approached the room where the others were eating, I was beginning to feel rather nervous. Everyone must have known at this point that Q and I didn't come home last night. And now we were rocking up together the next day, I very much hoped that Q was right when he told me that he had got this under control.

"Ah, the wanderer's return at last." Joe announced, causing everyones attention to draw to us approaching the table. 

"What's up?" Q replied loudly, acting as if everything was totally normal. If his approach was to act like nothing had happened by ignoring it,then that was never going to work. Also, I was going to kill him if that was the case.

Q sat opposite me, whereas I sat in the empty seat next to Sal. Him not saying one word to me as he was too busy watching Q from across the table.

"Hey.." I turned to face him, speaking just above a whisper. Everybody else seemed to be deep in their conversations and breakfasts to even notice our own. He turned to face me, giving me a smile, giving me instant relief.

"You good?" he asked, leaning in to kiss me. Okay, is there an emotion after 'just relieved'? Because I was that.

"I was worried that you would be mad at me.." 

"You know what? We've both fucked up here and there, when we get back to New York we'll put all of this behind us, right?" 

"I just didn't want you to think it was weird. Especially after everything that you said yesterday." 

"Why would I think it's weird? It's not like you two were alone." he replied, causing me to freeze a little, not knowing what to say after that. "You were, weren't you?" I turned to look at Q quick, who was watching our conversation, and luckily he knew it was time to use his 'plan'. 

"I was with a girl." Q blurted across the table, once again gaining more than one persons attention.

"Is that why Sam's not here?" Murr asked, pointing to an empty seat.

"We broke up yesterday. That's why April and I went out last night. I was in a bad way and she was just looking out for me." A+ for that lie.

"And hours later you were fucking somebody else? Sounds like you were really caught up over it." Joe laughed beside him.

"No.. Well, yeah. I guess you are right." Q began chuckling, his acting falling slightly. 

"Looks like you had a good night, though." Joe grabbed Q's upper arm, turning it slightly, revealing scratch marks. 

"What the heck!" Bessy leaned over Joe, inspecting the marks on his arm also. "Who did you sleep with, a mountain lion?" 

"I didn't even know they were there." he chuckled, looking down at his arm. I was certain that my face was flushing with redness, but luckily for me the attention all seemed to be on Q right now.

"Q's sexual antics aside, it's our last night here, so we're all going out tonight - as a group. Nobody is allowed to back out." Murr stated, slamming his hand onto the table. Everyone seeming to agree with his statement.

"Do you wanna go back to our room after here?" Sal leant over, whispering into my ear, his intentions completely obvious.

"I'm just really hungover right now.." I groaned, him pulling away slightly like he seemed embarrassed at my knock back. "Tonight?" I questioned, feeling extremely guilty as I placed my hand onto his thigh, a smile coming back onto his face as he nodded. My smile was wiped off my face, as I turned and met Q's face looking extremely disgruntled after once again prying in on our conversation. 

"What?" I mouthed towards him. He shook his head slightly, before downing the water in his glass, slamming it onto the table before getting up and leaving. 

"What was that about?" Joe questioned, pulling Q's chair back to the table which he had kicked out in his strop. 

"Poor thing. He must be having a hard time with the break up." Bessy stated, like she knew that was the exact reason. 

If only that was the reason.


	17. Envy

"You know, we still have a little time before we go out.." Sal suggested, kissing my shoulder from behind as we were alone in our room getting ready for our last night out at the club.

"Not now." I pulled away slightly. "I just put my make up and dress on." 

I didn't feel like that was completely unreasonable. We had planned to spend the night together, I'm sure he could wait a few more hours.

"Fine." he huffed, sitting down on the bed. He was ready ten minutes ago, but myself being the female, was still adding final touches. Although Sal could give me a run for my money with how much self manicuring and prepping he does. 

I heard Sal's text notification sound from his phone, followed by him looking down at the screen and sniggering.

"What, what's so funny?" I asked, curious as to what it may have been.

"Q. He's on the prowl." he smirked.

"Huh?" 

"He texted me this." he turned his phone screen around as I walked over to him.

'No way I'm leaving without a girl tonight. It's good to be back.'  it read.

It's good to be back? Kinda confirming that he was in fact a slime ball, making me wonder if he was the same way that he was with me with multiple other girls.

"I mean.. if he wants to be lonely his whole life." I replied.

"Q doesn't get lonely. That's just who he is." 

"I refuse to believe that he wants to go through life continuously on his own. Who would want that? That's a sad existence to me." 

"He's never really on his own. Think about it. He broke up with Samantha two days ago, and he's already working on not spending a night alone since then." 

"So the girls he actually gets into relationships with, mean nothing to him? That's just him elongating a one night stand for as long as he can?" 

"Pretty much. I mean, Sam was the only girl he's actually been official with for a while. But for me to say that he genuinely cared about her? That's a stretch."

"Interesting." 

"Why the sudden interest in Q's love life, anyways?" he asked.

"Trust me, I wish I knew." I sighed. 

"You ready to go wait in the lobby for everyone? The cabs are gonna be here in 10."

"Sure." I replied, as he held his hand out for me to walk down to the lobby. 

-

Once we arrived at the nightclub, Q had kept his distance from the moment we had walked into the hotel lobby, not even one single word was spoken to myself or Sal. 

I decided to leave Sal to have fun with the boys, whilst I joined Bessy and Murr's potential girlfriend Sarah on the dance floor. For an hour we danced hard, drunk hard, and laughed even harder, all before I locked eyes with Q who was heading to go outside. 

"I'll be right back, I need the bathroom." I called over to the girls as I subtly made a beeline after Q. The cool, evening air hit my bare skin, before the touch of someone's hand on my arm touched me just seconds later. 

"Where are we going?" I asked Q, who was now leading me down the street slightly. He pulled me down the side of a building, it was dark and sketchy looking, but the look on Q's face told me that there was a reason for pulling me away. Except, giving the chance, he said nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"You've really gotta tone down the jealously. You know that, right?" I told him. His face looked less than pleased at the words that had just came out of my mouth. "I'm serious. He's going to click at some point if you keep acting this way." 

"That's not right." he shook his head, somewhat seeming offended.

"What's not right?" 

"That you get to do what you do, to me especially, and then tell me not to get jealous." 

"What am I doing? I was with Sal when this first started out, so whether or not this had happened with you, I would still be acting this way with him. So don't go thinking that I'm trying to purposely make you jealous. You're not that special."

"Aren't I, though?" He questioned.

"And what's that supposed to mean exactly?" 

"Sal told me that you two haven't had sex the whole trip." 

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"I'm just saying, you publicly walk around like you're that into him, holding hands and kissing at the breakfast table, yet you won't sleep with him behind closed doors."

"So you think I'm doing that to play with your head?" 

"Maybe?" 

"He's my boyfriend, Brian. Not you.." 

"And don't I know that." he sighed, leaning against the wall. His hostile exterior dropping instantly. "I forgot how much it kills me to see you with him." 

"Don't say that." I stepped closer to his side, rubbing his shoulder with my hands.

"I don't know what to do." 

"I heard you had a plan." I replied, reffering to Sal's text that I had read from him earlier.

"I do?" 

"To bring the old Q back. Meaningless sex, just like what me and you have." I lied. It wasn't meaningless. To me or him.  

"You saw the text, huh?" 

"Yeah. I did." 

"I didn't mean it." he tried to justify himself, before I cut him off.

"Didn't you? It seemed pretty sincere. Seems like that's the Q that you want to be if you continuously go back to being that way." 

"Maybe you just don't know me like I know you." he replied.

"And what makes you think that you know me so well?" 

"Trust me, April. I know you." He pushed himself forward, no longer leaning against the wall. "I know that it's a hell of a lot easier for you than it is for me." 

"I refuse to believe that." I shook my head. His text had made me seriously doubt his supposed sincerity. 

"Why?" 

"Because we can never be together, Q. Whether Sal and I are together or not. Do you not understand what this could do to your friendship and even your job?" 

"I want you. None of that is important. Just you." 

"And what's to say that this is all because you can't have me? What happens if I - and hypothetically at that - told you that I wanted to be with you instead? What happens when you get bored and dump me, then what will you have? Because you sure as hell won't have Sal and you sure as hell wouldn't have me." 

"You're impossible." agitation rising in his voice. Most likely from knowing that I was right.

"And you're selfish." I retorted.

"I'm the selfish one." he started laughing. "You know what? Maybe I did have a plan. Maybe I'm gonna go back to that club, and maybe, just maybe I'm gonna get the best looking girl, and maybe I'm gonna fuck her. Hell, I might even find two. That's my plan, April. And guess what? Maybe you were just another on that list." 

"Yeah, maybe you're right" I shook my head, before leaving him and going back up the street that we had just came down. The only way to sooth my anger right now was to flush my system with alcohol. And lots of it.

Downing the cold glass in one try, I slammed the glass down onto the bar, before scanning the room and landing my sights onto Sal. Darting over to him, I grabbed him by the sleeve, pulling him away urgently.

"What's going on?" Sal asked, extremely confused.

"Nothing?" I turned around to face him once we got outside. "I'm just taking you home, so I can have my wicked way with you." I held out my arm to catch the attention of am oncoming cab. I might not always make the best decisions when it comes to sexual play, but one decision that seemed really good right now -  was fucking to forget.


	18. Boxes

"That was amazing." Sal panted as he rolled over beside me. "Definitely worth the wait." he grabbed his glass of water from the night stand, before taking a sip and then passing the drink to me.

"Indeed it was." I tool a swig from the glass also, placing it down next to me.

"So are you ready to get back home tomorrow?" he asked as he pulled me into his bare chest.

"Very ready. It's true what they say, I'm going to need a vacation from this vacation." I sighed.

"But you've had a good time, right?" 

"Yeah, it's been good. Although I did kind of wish that we went somewhere alone. Not that I dislike your friends, but I like it when it's just the two of us." False, I strongly disliked one of them very much right now.

"True, we did not spend an awful lot of time together on this trip. But we'll make up for that when we get home." he squeezed my shoulder.

"And how do you intend on doing that with such a busy schedule?" I quizzed, remembering how hard it was to see him most days as he worked 12 hour days, whereas I worked night shifts at the bar.

"Because I want you to move in with me." he replied, causing me to freeze out of shock for a moment or two. Those were the last words that I had expected to come out of his mouth. Especially after the stupid arguments that we had been having recently.

"What? You actually want to move in with me? After everything?" I asked, not able to hide the confusion.

"Well I want you to move into my place, but yes, I want us to live together. I think it'd be a good move for us." he looked down at me, trying to capture my expression. 

"But are you sure?" 

"This wasn't what I had planned in my head. I thought you'd be happy?" he began to sound nervous.

"No, no! I am happy! Of course I will move in with you, yes!" I now sat up and perched myself onto my knees, wrapping my arms around him tightly.

"So when we've finally recovered from travelling home, we can start bringing some of your things over to my place - I'm sorry, our place." he smiled from ear to ear. 

"Oh my gosh, I'm so excited!" I smiled. I've never had a serious relationship before, and I sure as hell had never lived with someone other than my family. It seemed like such an exciting adventure, getting to spend every day with your best friend, whilst getting to spend the nights cuddled up beside them.

"We should probably get some sleep, though. We have an early flight, and the quicker we get back, the quicker we can get you moved in." he smiled, before laying back down, holding his arm out for me to join him under the blanket.

"You're right. Goodnight, and thank you so much baby." I gave him a quick peck, before wrapping my arm around his abdomen. Within minutes I was drifting off to the steady breathing coming from beside me.

-

We had been back from vacation for two days now, and we were at my apartment collecting a few of my belongings. I was sat on my bed taping up some boxes, whilst Sal was folding my clothes into a suitcase. He would be the only guy that I would allow to do such a thing. The one time that his well-known OCD was a good thing.

"Whose is this?" Sal asked, holding up a large black shirt. He looked inside at the label. "Men's XL?" he asked. 

"Yours?" I questioned, not even thinking for a second that it might not have been his." 

"Not my size." he replied, looking at the front of the shirt once more. It contained a logo that I had no idea what it was of.

"Then I don't know." 

"Nice, some random guys shirt in with your clothes." 

"Are you really getting mad at that? I didn't even recognize the shirt. It's not that I kept it out of memory. It might even be my dads." I replied, as I got up and took the shirt out of his hands, and tossed it onto my bed.

"I'm not mad, I just don't want it in my house is all." he held his hands up.

"Wow, Vulcano." I replied, squinting my eyes at him.

"So you're going to tell me that you'd be cool with me keeping an ex girlfriends bra?" 

"That's not the same." 

"How is that not the same?" he laughed, half out of frustration and half out of actually finding the conversation funny.

"Because I can wear the shirt. You can't wear the bra. I mean, you could but it's not your size." 

"Point proven. But you're still not wearing it in my house."

"Sal, you could burn it for all I care. That's how little of an emotional attachment that I have to that thing." I sighed, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. Only as I did that, I was completely startled by a figure standing in the door way, which caused Sal to be startled by my reaction without even knowing what was going on.

"Holy fuck, Q. Creep much?" Sal clenched his chest as he turned around.

"You texted me and told me to come help. So, here I am." Q replied

"How long have you been standing there?" Sal asked him.

"I literally just walked into the room when you both crapped your pants." he replied, and I actually believed him. His face looked just as shocked as mine when I had clocked him in the doorway.

"Well pick up some of these boxes and bring them down to my car already, make yourself useful!" Sal replied, as he grabbed a box and made his way back to his car. In that time no words were exchanged between Q and I at first. 

"What's the deal with this shit on the bed, is that going to Sal's?" He asked as I was busy sorting out my closet. 

"Yeah, all of that is going." I replied, turning around to see him tossing what was laid on my bed into a messy pile in a box, but not being completely helpful as to seal the top. He stacked the open box on top of a sealed one, and continued to make his way out of the door to join Sal.

"Alright, my car is completely full and ready to go back. How much stuff have you got left here?" Sal asked when he got back.

"Just a couple of more clothes that I have to put away and that's it." I smiled towards him as Q returned to my apartment once more. 

"Right, then I'm gonna start driving back, and you can catch a ride back with Q, that way you'll have more space." He leant over, giving me a quick kiss, fetching tphis keys from his pocket before closing my apartment door behind him.

"How long are you gonna be?" Q asked, as he stood behind me watching me.

"Why, got somewhere more important to be? Or someone more important to be with?" 

"It was a simple question, Ap. I'm not looking to fight with you." He replied, voice seeming calm and quiet. Quiet one thing that Q never normally was. 

"Just these last two pair of pants, and I'm set." I replied, realizing that starting a fight with him was more than pointless at this time. I was moving in with my boyfriend, it was supposed to be a happy time, and I shouldn't let a past mistake ruin my day.

"Alright, good. I'll go wait in the car." He said as he was already turning to leave the room.

After saying goodbye to my apartment and locking up, I walked over to Q's jeep, opening the back door, throwing my bag of clothes onto the seat before closing the door and getting into the front.

The journey at first was quiet. Eerily quiet. Q must have felt the same way as he turned on the car radio to mask the painful silence a few minutes ago. Only as the song that was playing was coming to an end, I saw Q reach out to turn the volume down.

"I didn't get with anyone." he said, a few seconds after he had switched the sound off.

"What?" I asked, wondering why on earth that was at all relevant at this moment in time.

"The last night in Mexico. I didn't get with anyone." 

"Congratulations." I replied, voice containing no emotion whatsoever.

"I was mad. I had a few drinks in me, and I couldn't hold back anymore." 

"Aw, poor Q." I replied in a voice like I was talking to a child, noticing that I was being extremely cold, but it was always so easy to fall back into the vicious cycle that was Q and I when we were civil with one another. 

"Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. So I'm sorry for being a dick to you that night." he sighed. Causing me to feel a little guilt at how awful I was acting towards him, even though the last time I had seen him he was just as awful to me.

"It doesn't matter." I said. "I'm over it." 

"I know." he replied. "Like I said, I know you better than you know me." 

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked, looking over at him as he kept his eyes on the road before him.

"That night. I knew that he was going to ask you to move in with him. And I knew that you were going to say yes." 

"So your response to him telling you that was to pull me into an alley behind the club and then do what exactly?" I asked, genuinely wanting to know the answer as when he did what he did that night, he didn't have anything to say. He froze up.

"I don't know, April. I didn't think. I didn't want to think. I haven't felt this way about a girl in a long time." 

"You were gonna ask me to break up with him, weren't you?" 

"I don't know. Honestly, I had no intention of anything. He had told me minutes beforehand, and all I wanted was to see you. Maybe I did want to tell you that. But that doesn't mean I would have. As soon as I got you alone, I knew that you would say yes.  I could tell by the way that you were acting towards me, and I thought about every other time that we've been together and how you were never 100% into it. Then I got angry, which is why I was such a cunt." 

"So you were just feeling like the second option, pretty much?"

"I am the second option, April. I always have been" he stopped at a red light, before finally looking over at me. His eyes not looking as warm and welcoming as they usually did, instead he looked defeated.

"But what if I told you that that wasn't necessarily true?" I asked as he pulled away again. He was quiet for a moment as he focused on the road once more. 

"Then that doesn't matter anymore." he said as we pulled into the street where Sal lived. His eyes focusing on Sal leaning against the hood of his car waiting for my arrival. "You've made it pretty clear who you want now."


	19. See you around?

The following night, we were having a few drinks at our house with a couple of our friends to celebrate us moving in together.

"I really thought he'd be here, you know?" Sal said, as he waited for me to fill my glass in the kitchen.

"He'll turn up." I replied, knowing that Q would normally turn up to an occasion that offered free alcohol.

"People arrived three hours ago. He's not coming." 

"So focus on the people that actually came. I'm sure he had his reasons." I rubbed his shoulders. 

"I guess you're right." he forced a smile, before heading back out to our friends in the living room. 

I made a slow follow after Sal, pulling my phone out to send a text to Q to see if he was going to be making an appearance tonight. But after getting no response soon after sending, I put my phone back into my pocket. 

After I had gotten a few drinks in me, I started to feel more sensitive about many emotions that I was feeling right now. Especially towards Q. Mostly anger that he would purposely ignore his best friend. He could have at least sent one text message to tell him that he wouldn't be there.

"Would you put your god damn phone away?" Sal leant over my shoulder as I pulled it out to once again send Q a text.

"Excuse me?" I replied, not too sure if I liked the tone that he seemed to be giving me.

"It's rude, we have guests." he tried to keep his voice as quiet as possible to not cause a scene, but the tone was still very stern.

"Don't be a dick." I turned my head slightly to face him, letting him know with my eyes that I wasn't messing around. I was sending a quick text, it wasn't like I was on my phone the whole time ignoring our guests. Hell I was messaging his best friend to get him to come here for him.

I decided that I needed a few moments to myself. So I excused myself to the bathroom, but instead made my way to the front porch to sit down in the fresh cool air.

Looking down at my phone, I hovered my finger over Brian's name in my contact list. I definitely wanted to call him in this moment. He always had this weird calming affect on me, no matter how fucked up a situation is, whether I be arguing with Sal, or if we were both black out drunk at a strip club. I definitely had more fun with Q, no doubt about that. But as I sat picturing the good times with Brian, I just as quickly shrugged them out of my head. 

"Where did you go?" Sal asked as he saw me walk in from the opposite direction of the bathroom.

"I just needed some fresh air, is that alright with you?" I asked, not hiding my iritation with him anymore. 

"What's up your ass?"

"What's up my ass?" I questioned him, letting him know that I found his question to be completely and utterly ridiculous. "Are you purposely trying to be annoying tonight?" 

"Hey guys, we're gonna be on our way." One of our guests popped up behind us, their face clearly aware of the tension between Sal and I tonight. That most likely being the reason for them leaving so soon as it only seemed to be getting worse, and probably very uncomfortable for them to be around. "Thanks for a great night, though. And stop with the bickering." He pointed at us both, which was pretty embarrassing.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Sal looked over at me, as if it was my fault. It took all of my strength to not deck him right there in front of our company, but I could always do that moments later when they left.

Soon later we were waving everyone off into their taxi, and as soon as the door shut, I was no longer willing to put on a fake show of emotions. I was pissed.

"You had to start making little comments, didn't you?" I turned to Sal. He sighed and walked to the coat rack and grabbed his coat, threw it on his shoulders and began opening the front door. "Where are you going?" 

"Out." he said, as he slammed the door behind him.

"Oh my godddddd" I frustratingly groaned as I leant against the wall. He always seemed to find issues with the smallest things, and it drove me completely crazy. It was only day 1, if he were continue this all of the time then I was clearly going to go insane.

I trundled myself up the stairs, running a bubble bath to soothe the anger that I felt in the pit of my chest, and climbed in, surrounding myself in the warm water and scented bubbles.

Ten minutes later, as I was wrapping myself in a robe, I saw car lights flash into the windows as a car was pulling into the drive way. He had to come home as soon as I had finally relaxed myself. I wasn't zen enough for his attitude right now. That needed way more bubbles.

Walking down the stairs, I unlocked the door and opened it only to see Q climbing onto the porch.

"Mind if I come in?" he asked through a chuckle, noticing that I was shocked to see him. I didn't say anything, I just stepped back to allow him in. "Thanks for dressing up for me, I appreciate it." he said as we walked into the living room.

"Shut up." I turned to glare at him. "I thought you were Sal." I sat down on the couch, Q sitting next to me.

"He texted me." 

"Yeah, about seven hours ago." I replied, thinking he meant the texts this morning telling him about the party.

"Well yeah, I got those ones too, but I'm not talking about them. I got a text.." he pulled out his phone, scrolling through a few things before continuing his sentence " 36 minutes ago." 

"What did he say? Let me guess, something along the lines of 'April's a bitch'?" 

"Yeah, it also said 'kill me' on the end of it, too." 

"What? Show me" I said, leaning over to look at his phone screen, only he pulled it away laughing. 

"I was kidding, I was kidding. He said you two had a fight, and asked if I wanted to meet him for drinks." 

"And instead you came here." I raised my eyebrows at him smugly.

"Looks like it." he laughed as he looked down at his feet.

"I'm gonna get some drinks then" 

"I can't, I have to drive home at some point. Sal won't be back for a few hours, and I cant be here when he comes back." Q replied, clearly still uncomfortable and paranoid that Sal was onto him after the comments that he had made about us in Mexico. 

"And yet you still parked in the drive way? What happens if he comes back early, hmm?" 

"He's pretty pissed. I doubt it."

I walked into the kitchen, grabbed a large glass of wine for myself, definitely needing it after his last sentence. How on earth was he so pissed at me? I didn't do anything wrong.

"So what brings you here? Why aren't you out with him?" I asked as I sat back down, watching Q eye up my glass of chilled wine, practically drooling at the sight of it. "Go and park your car somewhere else." 

"What?" Q shook his head as if he was shaking himself from the trance that my wine held over him.

"Go and park your car around the corner so that you can have a drink." I replied, knowing that there was a store within walking distance that had a car park he could hide his car in.

"You trying to get me drunk, April?" 

"Maybe. I've never really hung out with you sober. I'm afraid that you might disappoint me and be boring." He pretended to get offended by my words as he tapped his pockets looking for his keys. Once he pulled them out he made his way out of the house. I sat and listened as he pulled away, waiting a couple of minutes for his return. "That was quick." I greeted him with a smile.

"You could of at least poured me a drink while I was gone." 

"Pour yourself one. You know where everything is much better than I do." 

I followed him into the kitchen, not many words being exchanged, just the fumbling of bottles and glasses. He placed his hands on my shoulders as he passed behind me to get to the refrigerator to grab an extra beer, and just the mere touch to my shoulders caused me to get a shudder down my spine.   
I have never fully been able to understand how there was such a connection to this guy. I barely knew him when I actually thought about it, but the attraction was undeniable. There was just something about the two of us that meshed together instantly, and before I knew it we were tipsy and heading up to the bedroom.

As we entered the room, we immediately began making out. The backs of my knees hit the bed, so I laid down before Q's body appeared above me not even seconds later. As the kisses got more hungry and the hands began to wonder more, I pulled away.

"Wait." I said, placing my hands on his chest. A confused and concerned look spread over his face. "We shouldn't be doing this in here." I pushed him off me so that he was now standing. I sat up, looking around the room, before getting up and heading towards the cupboard. All Q could do was watch as I pulled out a towel, waving it open and lying it onto the floor.

"Really? A towel? What am I, a dog?"

"I can't do this on his bed. It's already bad enough." he stood there staring at me, perhaps wondering if there was a different approach but the look on his face telling me that he had nothing.  
"Is that going to stop you?" I asked as I perched myself on the floor.

The look that was now plastered on his face told me that he didn't care anymore. He wanted me in that moment just as much as I wanted him. He shook his head, before getting onto the floor beside me, burrowing his head instantly into my neck, starting an assault of kisses and nibbles, knowing that was one of my biggest turn ons. I held my fingers in his hair, giggling every now and then at the tickling sensation his teeth and tongue provided me.

We proceeded to make out a little more, one of his hands now slipping into my robe, groping one of my breasts. Eventually he released my mouth, nipping his lower lip where I had bitten it. I took a gulping breath as I opened my eyes to look up at him. "A bit breathless, sweetheart?" he teased, pinching my nipple softly. 

I moaned, wrapping my hands around his neck, grabbing the collar of his shirt and holding him close to me. The material of his top frustrating me, all I wanted him to be in this moment was naked and inside me. I gripped it harder, and pulled it towards me, letting him know that I was growing extremely impatient at the slow pace.

"Can you stop tearing my clothes?" he laughed, his face close enough now so that our noses were touching.

"Only if you stop wearing them," I licked my lips, savouring his taste. 

"Clothes are very inconvenient for what I want to do to you." he smirked devilishly as he gave me a quick peck, before leaning back and removing his shirt. He was now knelt, looking down at his belt, trying his best to remove it as swiftly as possible, before undoing his zipper. I perched myself up onto my elbows, watching his every move as his pants became loose at the hips, exposing his boxers. I lifted my feet, placing them onto his hips, hooking my toes into the waistband of his underwear to pull them down. I could already see his bulge through the material, and I was more than ready to free him from the contents of the fabric. He chuckled before pulling them off completely, along with his pants, tossing them to the side of us.

He prowled back over to me, placing his hands onto the side of me, pulling my robe down to expose my breasts. His eyes now roaming my half naked body. He began to lower his hand, removing the robe entirely as his hand continued to travel down my stomach, and then between my legs. He rubbed his fingers a few times, leaning in to give me a kiss, as he positioned himself between my thighs. 

Slowly, he started fucking me. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. Every time he would push inside waves of pleasure flowed from my core and through my entire body. As soon as he picked up the pace just a little bit, I already felt an orgasm building. The build up, the memories of previous times, his skills themself had me tipping over the edge before we had even began.

"Oh God, yes" I moaned. I was so wet, all I could hear were the wet noises as he pushed in and out, over and over. "I'm cumming", I said when I knew that I couldn't hold back anymore. All I could do was groan as I came on his manhood, clinging to his neck in the spasms of my orgasm. Never had I cum this fast before.

When I had finally caught my breath, Q raised himself to a kneeling position in front of me, letting his cock slip out. I gasped as I felt the sudden emptiness. But he guided his cock to my pussy once again and as he pushed inside of me this time it had felt even better than before. Just that feeling of being completely filled was more than enough.

Starting slow put picking up the pace, I couldn't believe how good it felt.

"Your pussy feels so fucking good. It's so tight and so wet." He groaned, causing my face to flush with warmth. I had forgotten how Q was much more open to dirty talk and sex all around than Sal was. 

As I was about to have another orgasm, he slipped out of me again.

"No, keep fucking me", I pleaded.

"Turn around", he said. "Get on your knees."

I understood exactly what he wanted and quickly turned around and got on my hands and knees. He pushed my shoulders down slightly and I held my breath as I waited for him to start fucking me again.

Instead I felt his mouth on my pussy. He started licking and it was soon getting me close to another orgasm. He was wild. It felt so naughty, so dirty when he started eating me from behind.

"That feels so good" I panted.

He was beginning to drive me crazy, then he stopped and stood up on his knees behind me. I felt him sticking his thumb in my pussy before I felt his manhood close in on me.

"Oh my God, yes." 

He pushed his way deep into me, grabbing a firm hold of my hips. He pushed as deep as he could get and I was about to cum right then. Noises came out of my mouth that I had never made before - deep, primal noises.

He fucked faster and faster, harder and harder. I was constantly on the brink of an orgasm and I know that he was too. I didn't want him to come just yet, I couldn't get enough of him. But his heavy pants and sloppy thrusts told me that it was only a matter of time before this was over.

"I'm about to cum" Q announced through a strained voice, before the emptiness returned once again as he pulled away, pumping himself a few more times before an orgasm rushed over him with a loud growl. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind about using a condom, so I was glad that at least one of us was somewhat thinking straight, which made me realize just how much exactly I was caught up in the moment.

"You need to go." I turned to face him after he had cleaned up his mess with the towel.

"What?" he replied panting, still bearly recovered from his orgasm.

"You heard me. What time is it? Sal could be back any time soon." I responded, letting him know that this wasn't like the precious time where I had entirely killed the moment. This time I just really didn't want Sal returning. "Where are your clothes?" I asked as I looked down to find my robe.

"Over here on this box." he replied.

"Okay, hurry, get changed, quick." I ushered him as I tied the rope around my waist. As I looked up, the room barely lit by the small lamp on the cabinet, I walked over to the window on my still extremely shaky legs to check for any signs of a car. "Do you want me to walk with you to your car?" I asked as I followed him out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

"Nah. You go take another bath. I think you need it." he chuckled as he stepped closer to me, giving me a look as if he was asking permission to kiss me goodnight. I didn't allow, yet I didn't deny him, which gave him all of the go ahead that he needed as he leant down, giving me a lengthy peck. "I'll see you around, yeah?" he questioned, sounding hopeful.

"Yeah, you will." I replied, biting my bottom lip.


	20. Trouble.

"For God's sake." I heard Sal groan from the bedroom whilst I was getting ready in the bathroom, assuming the thud coming after his profanities was him tripping over my belongings once again. 

It had been two days since our fight, and since then Sal had been trying his best at not sweating the small things, but after making several hints at going to buy new storage spaces for my things, I was starting to believe that he was about to crack. Especially as this was the third time today that he had almost taken a tumble over my things.

As I walked out of the bathroom to see what all of the commotion was about, I saw a box of my belongings poured all over the floor, along with the empty box on its side next to it, and an in pain Salvatore grasping his toes.

"We really need to.."

"Get me some storage. I know, you keep telling me." I laughed as I crouched beside the box, scooping a few things into it.

"I'm not complaining." Sal replied defensively. "But you do need somewhere for all of your things to go." 

He was right, and could he really complain? He had asked his girlfriend to move in with him, after all. And with that came her belongings too.

Sal knelt beside me, helping me pick up some items when he slowed his movement down. I saw him staring down at his lap for a moment out of the corner of my eyes, before I turned to look at what he was inspecting.

"Why do you have Q's shirt?.." he asked as he held the fabric between his fingers. My heart instantly dropped into my stomach, and I had to try with all of my might to hide the panic on my face.

"That's Q's shirt?" I played dumb, but in reality I knew that it was his shirt. It was the same shirt that I was desperately trying to rid from his body two days prior. He must have placed it on the box that contained the shirt Sal didn't want me taking to his house, and gotten the two mixed up.

"You know it's Q's shirt. We got it made for him for his birthday." he sighed.

"I didn't-"

"He wears it all the damn time, April." He now looked over at me, finally bringing himself to look me in the eyes. "You know.. for the longest time I told myself that I was just being an idiot. I always knew that something was going on, but I told myself that it was ridiculous. My best friend.. and my girlfriend. Surely they would never do that to me?" He started chuckling to himself. "Do you remember in Mexico, I said that once we get back to New York that everything stays in the past. I thought you'd see the hint."

So he really did know.. I thought it was just Sal and his paranoid ways. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to even say what I thought I should say. I feel like at this point, me telling him that I was sorry would be the equivalent of me laughing in his face.

"I-I.." I tried to speak but I couldn't even begin to form a coherent sentence.

"How long?" he asked, voice extremely calm, however when I couldn't find the response that he in that moment so clearly wanted, the agitation began to show. "How long, April?!" 

"I don't know!" the three words shot out of my mouth. Truth is, I really didn't know. It was extremely on and off. It hadn't even happened that many times.

"The person you cheated with, that was him, wasn't it?" he questioned, although he knew that he already had the answer to that. "That was one of the first few nights that I introduced you two to each other." he began laughing once more. "That long?" 

"No, no. It wasn't like that!" I replied, sure that is when it had happened for the first time, but it was never a continuous thing. "It only happened four or five times." 

"Four or five times." he repeated what I said. "Four. Or five. Times. Well that makes it all okay then." 

"I'm not saying that, Sal. You have to understand that."

"No, April. What I want to understand is why. Why him, and why are you even with me?" 

Why him? That was a question that I didn't even know the answer to. Or at least a question that I had never let myself think too hard into. I didn't want to think too much into my feelings for Q. Even though some days I knew that they were extremely there. But whilst I was Sal's girlfriend, I would always be pushing them aside as much as I could.

"I don't know. It was never a sober thing. Not that that's an excuse, but that's the only explanation that I have." 

"Who initiated it?" he asked, completely ignoring my lame attempt at an excuse.

"What? I don't know? I was drunk. We both were."

"Bullshit." he retorted. "That night in Mexico, I saw the two of you by the fire. Cuddled up with your arm around him, in full sight of everybody." 

I began to get confused at what he was saying, not remembering a romantic incidence as such, that was until the penny dropped and the memory returned.

"I was comforting him. He had just broke up with Sam." 

"He didn't give a fuck about Sam and you know it." 

"Is that why it was so easy for you to sleep with her?" 

"Are you really going to turn this around on me right now, to take the heat of you fucking my best friend behind my back? Key words being behind my back, here." 

"It's not what I was doing. I'm sorry.." 

"For the first time, or the fourth or fifth time?" He asked. I shook my head as I stood up. I walked over to the spare drawer that Sal had let me put some of my clothes into as I started to pull some out. "What are you doing?" 

"I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that you want me to leave, right?" I turned to face him, raising an eyebrow as he stood before me looking absolutely bewildered. He began walking towards me, and grabbed the clothes that I had pulled out, placing them back into the drawers once more.

"No, No I don't." he replied, seeming calm once again. "Come here." he said, lightly grasping my arm to guide me to the edge of the bed next to him. "Do you love me?" he asked as I perched on the edge of the bed.

"Of course I do." I looked at him, shocked that he would even doubt that, even though I guess he had his reasons to doubt. 

"If you had feelings for him, you wouldn't have moved in with me, right? That's the one thing that has always kept me from going insane." 

"I wouldn't even be with you." I replied. I lied. 

"So stay." he said, grabbing my hands that were on my lap. It took me a minute to soak in what he was suggesting. 

"A..Are you sure?" I asked, although he seemed sure in what he wanted. I guess he had some time to think about how he would prosecute this.

"I'm sure." he looked me in the eyes, and I could tell that he was also being sincere. "But on one condition." he paused, and I slowly nodded, awaiting his proposition. "We carry on with our relationship. We won't even let him know that I know. But only if you never talk to him again"..


	21. Questions

"What are you doing here?" I turned around after feeling a prod on my back whilst clearing a table at work. 

"I came in for a drink, this is a bar." Q smiled back. I grabbed his upper arm, and pulled him into a corridor behind the bar, away from prying eyes.

"I can't be seen with you." I replied, causing Q to raise his eyebrows.

"Relax, I'm not here to get you in trouble, I'll order something." he said, completely unaware of the ultimatum that Sal had given me the night before.

"I don't mean it like that.." I looked around us before lowering my voice. "This, us, we can't be seen together anymore."

"Why?" He quizzed.

"Because.." I paused, wondering if I should even tell him or not. My place of work definitely not being the right time to tell him. "Are you free later? I need to talk to you about something." 

"What time?" he asked.

"I get off at 11, is that too late?" I replied. He shook his head. "Okay, well I'll meet you out back at eleven. Do not be seen."   
Q just looked at me, wondering why on earth I was acting in such a way, but something told me that the previous nights scenario would be the last thing that he would expect. 

Before I knew it, 11pm had arrived and I was standing in the employee parking lot behind the bar awaiting Q's red jeep to ride up the drive way. I was scrolling through my phone, replying to a text from Sal letting him know that I would be home late tonight when a pair of headlights shone onto my body.

I looked up, noticing that it was Brian and made my way to the passenger seat and climbed inside.

"So where to?" I asked, knowing that we couldn't go back to my place and him knowing I had told him earlier that we couldnt been seen together. 

"I was thinking we could go back to mine?" he looked over at me as he waited for a response.

"Sounds good." I smiled. 

I had never been to Brian's house before, nor did I ever think I had a reason to go there, but that would be the one place that the two of us could get some privacy so we could finally talk.

After the drive to Staten Island, we pulled up into Q's driveway where I looked at the house before it. It was much different to what I had expected it to be. I was expecting a small shack close to the town, the bars and nightlife. Not a decent sized house away from it all.

I followed closely behind him as he unlocked his door and stepped inside, the warmth feeling good as soon as we entered. The pitter patter of a furry feline welcoming his owner as soon as we entered the kitchen.

"I've just gotta feed these guys, and then I'll get you a drink?" he asked, as he pulled a tin of cat food out of the cupboard.

"Yes please, I think I'm gonna need it." 

"That bad?" he looked up at me as he placed the empty can into the bin.

"Relatively." I replied, watching Q as he washed and dried his hands.

"Wine?" he asked as he pulled a bottle from the side of the worktop. 

"Actually, do you have a beer?" I asked, and a small smile played on his face.

"I knew I liked you for a reason." he turned around and walked over to the refrigerator, grabbing a bottle of chilled beer for me and himself. He handed me the bottle and I followed him into the living room. We both sat down on opposite ends of the couch, parted enough to be able to face one another. "So what's up?" 

This was the moment that I hadn't thought too much into yet. Was I to tell him that Sal knew, or was I to somewhat twist that truth? If I told him the truth, would it change things between him and I? Or would it change things between himself and Sal? Those questions I did not know the answer to. But I guess the only way to know those answers was to be completely and utterly honest with him. 

"Sal knows." I blurted out. And I had no other idea on how to tell him than to just straight up say it. There was no reason to sugar coat it at this point.

Q froze his arm in motion as he was about to bring the bottle of beer up to his lips.

"What? What do you mean he knows, what part does he know?"

"Everything. He pretty much knows everything." 

"And you know this for sure how?" 

"Because he told me. And I admitted to it." Brian raised an eyebrow as if it was me that had admitted to it first rather than Sal confronting me. "I had no choice, he found your shirt. You know, from the other night?" 

"But I wore my shirt home." he replied, and the realization hit me. The shirt that Sal had found when I was moving out my apartment was Q's all along.

"Nope, I had another one of your shirts. But.. You know what, never mind that's not important to what I have to tell you." 

"So if he knows, why hasn't he said anything to me?" 

"That's the point that I'm getting to. He knows, but he gave me an ultimatum. He'll forget that everything has happened, and he won't tell you - if I never see you again." 

"And what did you say?" 

"I didn't say anything." I sighed. 

"So then what are you going to to do?" he asked, and I shrugged. "I refuse to believe that this is all as simple as it seems." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" I questioned, thinking that his response was possibly him hinting that I was lying.

"Sal. That he's just going to let this all go so easily." 

"Maybe he's had enough time to think it through. For instance, what business would you both have if the two of you hated each other?"

"But what explains the fact that you and him are still in a relationship?" 

"I don't know, Q." I replied, really unknowing of the reasons as to why Sal had completely unreacted. The only logical reason that I could ever come up with is that he loved his job. And without Q, or without Sal, they wouldn't be what they were and what everybody knew and loved.

"He just doesn't trust me. That's why he's still with you but won't let you around me. He doesn't see you as an issue here. I'm the issue. Like you said, he's had enough time to think it through. So maybe, just maybe he knows that taking you away from me will be a lot harder for me than I'd like to admit. A punishment, if you will." 

"Who says I want to stay away?" I asked, sliding closer to him as I could tell he was getting agitated.

"You're still with him. That's what tells me that. Even if it's not now, it'll happen later." he pulled away from me and stood up, clenching his beer tightly in his hand.

"You're wrong." I replied, hoping that he would notice the sincerity in my voice. "I told myself that I would never hurt him again. But you make it so easy to hurt him. I don't want to stop seeing you." 

Q sat on the couch opposite me.

"And how do I know that you're not going to change your mind and leave me hanging once more?" 

"I was never supposed to do that. At least not intentionally. Do you remember,  you once said that you thought you were the second option to me and that I wasn't ever 100% with you? I was. But I couldn't show that. I was cheating on my boyfriend."

"So why can you tell me that now? He's still your boyfriend." he looked me dead in the eyes.

"Because I love you."


	22. The night out: Part 1

It had been two weeks since I had told Q how I felt, and he had yet to give me any kind of answer. Of course there were parts of me that knew he had feelings for me, but to say that things hadn't changed when I told him that Sal knew was an understatement. He pretty much fell off the face of the earth. I was questioning a lot of things. Was he feeling too much guilt? Why wasn't I feeling enough guilt? How am I doing this? And more importantly, why am I still thinking about him at this point when he had clearly made up his mind? 

"What's wrong?" Sal asked as he walked into the living room.

"Nothing, I'm just so tired." I sighed, noticing that my ability to lie so easily would even astonish me most days.

"So you don't wanna come out tonight? Jay asked us to hang out, you remember him, right?" 

"Yeah, I remember him." I replied. Jay was the producer of the show. "I'll come. Maybe having something to do will wake me up a little." I faked a yawn.

Two hours later we were on our way to the bar that Jay had told us to meet him at, and upon arrival, I realized that we were not the only ones to be invited. Murr, his girlfriend, and Q were some of the faces that I had already spotted amongst the small gathering of people, leading me to wonder if Sal had known that he was going to be here.

"Hey guys" Murr smiled and reached in to give me a hug as we greeted everyone at the bar, as Murray had his arms around me, looking over his shoulder I locked eyes with Q, who threw me a quick nod. Well, at least he was somewhat acknowledging me. 

Sal was already off mingling with his friends while I stayed and chatted to Murr and his girlfriend. Every now and then I could feel Q's eyes burning into me, but he was keeping his distance, just as hard as I was pretending not to notice him looking. Ignoring him was hard. Even when things were cooled down between us, we still had great banter and a great friendship with each other more than anyone else in the room, so for us to not gravitate towards one another as much as we wanted to was almost painful.

As I was ordering another drink at the bar, I felt my phone vibrate. I pulled it out, seeing that I had a text from an unknown number. Only as I had loaded up the text, all of the previous texts exchanged had let me know that it was Q. But I had definitely not deleted his number at any point. Leading me instantly to the one guy that would go through my phone and delete his number. 

'You look so good tonight.' The text read.

'Oh, so now you acknowledge me, huh?' I replied.

'Kinda hard to.' 

I guess he was right. Not that I took his quiet spell all too personally, but some kind of acknowledgment would have been nice at least.

'I wanna fuck you so bad.' Another text came through. Talk about biting the bullet and going straight for it.

'That is a shame.' 

'Don't play me like that. I have to see you' 

I sat looking at his text for a few minutes, looking around the bar. Sal was extremely into his friends, Q on the other hand was sat alone head deep into his phone. It seemed like something that I could get away with. But if Sal were to look up for even a millisecond and not see at least one of us in the room, all hell would break loose.

'How about tomorrow?' I finally texted him back.

'Tomorrow is a long time away.' 

'I'm sure you'll manage' I sat and watched him from across the room as he typed back.

'With these? sure' He attached pictures to the message, the bikini shots that I had accidentally sent to him instead of Sal in Mexico. I laughed to myself, feeling rather naive to believe that he wouldn't have actually kept them for all of this time.

'I believe that wouldn't be the first time' I picked up my own flirting.

'Trust me, it's not' He replied, causing me to smile.

"What are you smiling at?" Murr's girlfriend, Sarah giggled.

"I was just on instagram." A tiny white lie at this point meant nothing on top of the other lies that I had told at this point. 

"Say no more." she laughed. 

"So how are things with you and Murr?" I asked.

"They're great. Really great. I am really nervous about them all going to the UK, though." she sighed.

"Why?" 

"Two weeks is a long time. London is far away. Maybe I'm just being paranoid." 

"I think so." I chuckled a little bit.

"What about you and Sal? Where is he anyways?" 

"Who knows." I laughed once more. "Things are good. You know, when he actually wants to spend time with me and doesn't disappear into the night." 

"I see." She laughed. "Well, they have to be somewhat good for something on instagram to actually make you smile. People usually make me feel quite the opposite on that site." 

Just then, Sal finally returned on my radar, giving me a signal to go over to him. 

"Sorry about him, Sarah. I'll talk to you later though?" I called out as I headed over to him.

"Hey gorgeous." he leaned in to kiss me quick, the smell of booze already taking over. He grabbed my hand, leading me over to the group sat down. Mostly guys, I definitely felt a little outnumbered. 

"Yeah, that's my boy!" one of the guys yelled, causing everyone else to look in the direction that he was yelling it in. And of course it would be Q, talking to a girl. He flapped his hands, telling the guys to knock it off. "No, bring her over!" He yelled once more. Q looked at his girl as if he was asking her if she wanted to, and within seconds she was nodding, and they were both walking over.


	23. The night out: Part 2

"Guys, this is Alicia. Alicia, guys." Q introduced his new lady friend to the group. I felt uncomfortable. Not for myself, but for this girl. She had just met a guy in a club, and now she was standing before everybody most likely aware that she was only going to be a one night stand. If she wasn't aware, everyone at the table definitely was.

"So, how'd you two meet?" One of the guys chimed in her direction as she and Q sat down.

"Uhm, just, well, over there, really" she giggled nervously. Marvelous. What a marvelous answer. 

"Well we all gotta start somewhere." Jay laughed.

"I'm going to head to the restroom real quick" I whispered into Sal's ear as I handed him my drink to hold. He nodded as he watched me get up and leave his sight. 

Pushing the bathroom door open, I leant myself against one of the sinks, looking at the reflection staring me back in the mirror. Even I was starting to wonder how I could keep such composure on the outside, whilst feeling like a complete and utter mess on the inside. 

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out to see the same "unknown" number which happened to be Q.

"At least try and hide your jealousy." 

"I am not jealous" I responded, feeling almost enraged by his choice of words. I've seen him look at me with rage on his face. I've seen him look at me with jealousy on his face. I wouldn't have chosen any of those moments to send an annoying little text to him. It was as if this guy loved the drama. It wouldn't surprise me if he had sent all of those flirtatious texts to me, knowing that he would throw himself at another woman in front of me just moments later. 

I awaited another one of his childish texts, mentally preparing myself for the annoyance he always seemed to make me feel. I was starting to realize that this man loved getting a rise out of me. And maybe I was foolish to always give him that. But the text never came. 

I still found myself looking at my reflection, zoning completely out what was happening. 

I decided I had calmed myself down enough to return to the group, only as I got there, there was no more of said "lady friend". And no more Q at that.... Typical. 

"What's up with you, bad guts?" Sal quietly laughed at me as I took my seat next to him.

"What? no!" I replied quickly, hitting him gently on the arm, embarrassed that someone may have overheard what he had just said.

"I'm kidding around!" He whispered loudly, however, luckily, nobody had been paying any attention. "But for real though, you okay?" 

"Actually, I'm not feeling too great now that you mention it. I might head home." 

"I'll come wit..."

"No, stay. We just got here, have fun with your friends." I smiled at him, he looked back at me like he was unsure of which choice to make. "Sal, I'm serious, I'll be fine. I'll get an uber and head straight to bed." 

"And you're sure?"

"I'm sure." I said, collecting my bag and standing up, pulling out my phone to request my uber.

"I'll stand out with you until your ride gets here." Sal placed his hand on the small of my back, walking me to the entrance. Only as we were heading out of doors, Q came walking back in, alone.  
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" He asked once more as we waited in the street.

"Last I checked, I am a relatively big girl." I smiled at him. "You don't have to feel guilty about everything, you know that, right?" 

"Yeah, I know" he replied, looking over my shoulder as a car engine got louder. "I think your ride is here." He walked me over, opening the door for me. "I'll text you when I'm on my way back." He leant down to kiss me once I had seated myself inside the car. 

"Okay babe. Have fun." I watched as he shut the door, giving me a small smirk as the car pulled away. 

The car ride seemed to have a relaxing aspect on whatever angry feeling I had inside of me. Sitting, looking out of the windows at the nicely lit buildings, completely forgetting about the ruckus that was in my mind. 

Once I had made it home, I changed into some comfortable pajamas and settled myself onto the couch, about to divulge myself into Netflix for a couple of hours when my phone started to vibrate. Not looking to check the caller ID, assuming it would just be Sal checking to see if I had made it home okay. 

"Why did you leave?" Q's voice appeared on the other end. 

"I didn't really want to come in the first place. I was tired." I replied. I couldn't hear any music or loud noise in the background of his call, so I could only assume that he was no longer at the bar also. I heard him chuckle at my answer. "This has nothing to do with you, or with Amy, Alice, whatever her name was either, before you even try to pin that on me."

"Woah, woah, woah. Who said that it was?" His voice sounded very cocky within that sentence. 

"The little snigger that you just did implied that." 

"Did it? You're crazy."

"I'll happily take crazy over jealous any day." I responded. 

"Alright, April. You are not jealous."

"I'm really not." 

"Yeah, well, no reason to be anyway."

"Why, did you manage to scare her away?" I joked, although I did want an answer to what he had meant by his words. 

"No. It just wasn't like that. She was a fan of my podcast. That's all." 

"And since when are you all buddy buddy with your fans?" 

"I always have time for them." 

"Okay, dear hero." I heard him laugh at my comment. "So what do I owe this call?"

"No reason. I'm just at home. I saw you leave with Sal, but then he back alone. Figured I'd grab probably the only opportunity I'd be able to get to catch you on your own." 

"Sorry, is this Quinn, just wanting to... Talk?" I joked. 

"Yeah, don't sound too surprised." He laughed back. "I'm equally as horny as I am in need of a chat."

"And there he is, the real Brian." He chuckled at my words. 

"What are you doing now, anyway?" He asked. 

"Isn't the question supposed to be what am I wearing?" 

"That can always be discussed if you want." 

"Well I hate to disappoint, but I am definitely wearing some seriously sexy winter Pajama's as of right now." 

"Yeah, that hits the spot." 

"Right? So sexy." I giggled, followed by a long yawn.

"What was that?" He asked, confusing me by his question.

"What was what?" I questioned back. 

"That noise."

"My yawn?" 

"That's what that was?" He sounded slightly shocked. "Jesus."

"Wait, why are you saying that?" I asked, on the verge of feeling extremely self conscious.

"I have never heard a more sexual sounding yawn in my life." 

"Why don't you go and jack off or something?" 

"Why don't you help me?" He then requested a video call. Part of me told myself to tell him goodnight and to end the call, but that would be the sensible answer. Something that I always seemed to avoid at all costs. "You're right, those are some sexy pajamas" were the first words to enter his mouth as soon as I accepted his video call. 

"Would I lie to you?" 

"Nope. Only Sal." He bantered back. 

"Funny man, aren't you?" 

"That's what people seem to tell me."

"Funny looking." I countered.

"And there was me about to tell you how good you look tonight."

"You can still tell me that" 

"Maybe I don't want to now."

"Oh come on.. You always want to." I pretty much purred that sentence, making him realize the truth in my words, and the power that I had over him.

"I always want to do a lot of things to you." 

"Tomorrow is still on if you're up for it."

"Trust me, I'm up for it. Especially right now" he lowered the camera to his lower half, cupping his evident bulge over his sweat pants. 

"I can see that." I grinned. 

"So tomorrow then? What time?" 

"I'm alone from 5." 

"I'll see you at 5."

"You definitely will. And one thing before I go, because like I said, I am extremely tired after all." I pulled aside the fastening of my pajama top, letting him get a glimpse of my boobs before hanging up. Then what seemed like seconds later, I received a text. 

"Whatever happened to the help?" 

"I agreed to no such thing. Have fun with your hand." I replied before throwing my phone down, deeply wishing that I could accompany him in his bedroom right now. But luckily for me, there would always be tomorrow to look forward to.


End file.
